Trademarks by Jenn McKinlay

 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. 

Etsy Shop: Dust Jacket Goods

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. 

The only one I agree with is Michael Buffer because the man uses it in his work every single match, so it feels legit. The others? Not so much. But here lies the problem, it's all rather subjective isn't it? The person in charge of your application at the trademark office is the one deciding if it gets trademarked or not. What if they're having a bad day? Or a good day? Or they hate whatever it is you're trying to trademark? 

There's actually a person who trademarked the phrase "boy mom." Yes, I'm serious and as a boy mom, I'm bewildered as to WHY a person would do such a thing? Are you really trying to corner the market on "boy mom" merch? Phooey. I'll go to an online pay on demand print shop and design whatever I want myself so thanks but no thanks.

So, Reds and Readers, how do we feel about this trademark trend? Yay or nay or what the heck?