JENN McKINLAY: What a wacky week in the book community! A book blogger trademarked the phrase "hot girls read" and the book community has lost their ever lovin' fluffin' minds. And rightly so.
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One glance at etsy.com and I can see hundreds of vendors use that phrase to sell booky merch. So to trademark it is a slap in the face of all the other book merch vendors who've been using the phrase on their notepads, t-shirts, stickers, and such for years.
How is blocking these vendors from using that phrase going to impact the woman who trademarked it? At a guess, not well. Is she really going to spend her days demanding the platform take down all the other vendors by waving her trademark papers? Does she not have anything better to do? At all?
While the book community can never agree on anything, such as favorite book, character, adaptation, and such, if someone goes after one of them, they will get all of them coming for them. Seriously, book lovers are "we ride at dawn" defenders of all bookdom.
But back to the broader discussion of trademarked phrases. In answer to the question "what are some of the wackiest phrases that have been trademarked?" Google returned this:
- "Let's get ready to rumble!": Sportscaster Michael Buffer successfully trademarked this iconic boxing phrase in 1992, allowing him to legally control its use in entertainment, events, and merchandise.
- "That's Hot": Paris Hilton secured the rights to her signature catchphrase in 2007 and even used it to successfully sue Hallmark for printing it on greeting cards without her permission.
- "This Sick Beat": During the 1989 era, Taylor Swift filed a famous trademark on this lyric, along with "Party Like It's 1989".
- "Tiger Blood": Charlie Sheen filed 22 trademark applications in 2011 to lock down his famous interview soundbites, including "Duh, Winning" and "Vatican Assassin".
- "Tebowing": Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow trademarked the act of kneeling and praying in a pose that became a viral internet meme.
- "Let's roll": The phrase—famously spoken by Todd Beamer on hijacked United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001—was trademarked by his foundation to protect it and sell merchandise with proceeds going to charity.
Of course, hot girls read! Right now I am at Bradley Field, yes it's 3:30 am. I am waiting for my flight to Michigan for my aunt's 90th. birthday party. Driving me here, Irwin said, "Pay the extra $200 next time and take a flight at a reasonable time." He might have a point. Duncan Donuts opens at 4:00. Coffee!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I don't understand how people can trademark phrases, it's hard enough to protect real ideas. Anyway, this "hot girl" has packed lots of books!
Hope you are feeling better, Jenn.
Good morning Judy! I think Irwin's right:). Have a wonderful time at the party.
DeleteXXOO
DeleteHaving made the weird hour drives to Bradley…Irwin is right! Enjoy the trip and the birthday party, Judy. Elisabeth
DeleteMy initial thought was to say, "That's all rather silly;" generally, it feels a bit mean-spirited . . . but then I thought about writers and AI and all of that mess and figured that, if I were a writer, I might really consider getting a trademark/copyright for something like my series characters simply to keep them away from AI . . . .
ReplyDeleteTimes are complicated aren't they Joan? It's hard for me to imagine why I'd need to trademark my characters--copyright definitely! But I can only keep so much in my poor brain:)
DeleteThat's an interesting thought Joan - I wonder if authors of trademarked and copyrighted movies/plays/books/music can sue AI if they use their material or characters names. Jenn I think you had trouble with this?
DeleteI hadn't heard about the hot girls read kerfuffle, but I think trademarking phrases is stupid. It's language, and language belongs to everyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Edith!
DeleteI couldn't have put it better!
DeleteFrom Celia: I'm clutching my head in despair, and I'm against this type of pettiness. Luckily I am very lightly attached to social media and have chosen only to blog with JRW whose kindness and encouragement has been an absolute gift from this community.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note it seems that a trademark whose job is to identify a serious business (such as Duncan Donuts whose colored heading stands out calling us to coffee) has no place in an AI catch phrase world simply leading to more 'stolen' materials such as the time authors have just to spend protecting their work from AI etc. can't help thinking of the current phrases we use daily, Edith is correct, it's stupid and language belongs to us all.
Trademarks are liable to start lawsuits! Just as an aside, my family had a clean products website with some of our own products but mostly other green brands. We named our products EcoAble and applied for a patent. A company that sold wholesale products called Ecolab notified us of their intent to sue us over the name because we had the same letters in our name. Different products, different market, made no difference, we had to change our products name. Makes no sense but we had to do it or pay tens of thousands in legal costs!
ReplyDeleteThat's such a crazy story! Helps shed some light on the dark side. With book titles, there is no copyrighting. So an author could choose a title that's been used over and over. (Not thinking that would be a smart move however!)
DeleteWriters, there is a simple way to get around this. In any romantic/sexual/hanky-panky situation, have the female wear a bowler, fedora, Stetson, Scottish tam, or other headwear. To may knowledge, no one has trademarked "hat girls read."
ReplyDeleteBeing able to trademark something like "Hot Girls Read" seems kind of stupid.
ReplyDeleteI suppose, like in the case of Michael Buffer, if a phrase is associated with you it makes sense to try to trademark it. It's language yes but the phrasing of those individual words gives you at least a notion of the trademark BS.
But for all the other phrases that Jenn listed, the fact they were allowed to become officially trademarked seems more like a payoff was made to the person in the trademark office than common sense was being applied that day.
To think that useless sacks of mostly water like Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen and Tim Tebow own trademarks makes me want to scream.
Oh, and there's another phrase that got a lot of notice for being trademarked. Basketball legend Pat Riley got one for the phrase "three-peat", if I remember right.
By the way, according to an article on People Magazine's website, the controversy was so intense that the woman has surrendered the trademark (though the paperwork is apparently still going through on that). - Article Link - https://people.com/why-is-the-term-hot-girls-read-trademarked-all-about-the-controversy-sweeping-booktok-11993298
DeleteI might be able to understand trademarking an original image combined with a specific phrase, maybe. Maybe... I wonder if the 'hot girls read' trademarker thought she was being super clever and making her merch super exclusive with a trademarked phrase...clearly, that hasn't worked for her...
ReplyDeleteOh and I see from Jay's second comment that it has well and truly backfired on her...
DeleteTrademarking a common phrase seems a bit much. The picture on the T-shirt looks like my mom when she was young, so thanks for that! Just yesterday I read a story in The Contrarian about a drag queen named Pattie Gonia who is being sued by the outdoor gear manufacturer Patagonia. The suit is making Patagonia look petty and ridiculous and giving Pattie a way larger audience. (She is quite something by the way) https://www.contrariannews.org/p/pattie-gonia-drag-queen-name-lawsuit
ReplyDeleteI've been racking my brain trying to recall some of the phrases Ohio State University has trademarked over the past few years. Since my husband is a proud graduate of Ohio University (Ohio's FIRST land-grant university by 67 years, he is quick to point out) it is usually a sore point for him. OU has successfully fought some of the trademarks, but not all of them.
ReplyDeleteBut somehow a big, soulless behemoth like OSU doing something stupid feels more predictable and less upsetting than an individual. I'm glad to hear that the reaction has led her to a belated attack of conscience.
BTW, thanks, Jay, for the link to the People article. I enjoyed reading their full take on it!
Jenn, good grief! Some people would find any reason to file a lawsuit. I never knew about trademarking a common phrase until it was discussed here on Jungle Red Writers. I just cannot wrap my brain around that idea of trademarking a common phrase. I do not know what to say about this.
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