Board Thread:Policies/@comment-246292-20140127154120/@comment-3361105-20140320155451

That gets awkward. If DC bought Trademarks but not copyrights, it means they can't legally reprint anything until it falls into public domain - but it also means nobody else can even if they do go into public domain, essentially giving them copyright (as soon as they go into public domain). The trademark meant they could publish NEW material using the characters. (You can't copyright a character, you can only make it a trademark).

So, to sum up, yes, DC owned all the characters, but no, DC did not and does not own any of the Quality books published before they bought the trademarks unless they bought the copyright too.