Today's story of corporate greed arises, shamefully, from what is arguably the current core of geek culture: comic books. It seems that Marvel and DC have jointly filed a trademark for the word "Superhero" and all variants of it. Now they're going to use said trademark to bully smaller comic upstarts. Why? Because they're assholes, I guess.

Companies, particularly American ones, should be thankful that they operate under the glorious free-market capitalist system. They're not restricted in the way that they would be under communism. However, they don't seem to appreciate this freedom. Instead of working hard to develop superior products to their competitors, they resort to these kind of dirty tricks to get their way. So much for the idea that "the cream always rises to the top". These days it's: "The company with the most inventive legal team stays at the top and crushes all innovation in their industry". If DC and Marvel want to maintain their market share, all they have to do is keep nurturing their already fantastic intellectual property. There's no need to stomp all over the little guys.

Remember: when competition doesn't work, capitalism doesn't work.