Actor Tries To Trademark 'N' word

[Dogmudgeon]

As I live and breathe ...

The actor Damon Wayans has been engaged in a 14-month fight to trademark the term "Nigga" for a clothing line and retail store, a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's online database reveals.

Wayans wants to dress customers in 14 kinds of attire from tops to bottoms, and use the controversial mark on "clothing, books, music and general merchandise," as well as movies, TV and the internet, according to his applications.

Read the whole damned thing at http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70259-0.html

So, is Wayans making a statement about our bone-headed Intellectual Property laws, or has he become a greedhead? Or something else?

--p!
Of COURSE it's true. I saw it on the Internet!

[XemaSab]

1. Abraham Lincoln and MLK must be rolling in their graves...

This is like some KKK fantasy come true:

"Hey, let's have all the black people wear the n-word across their chests!"

:eyes:

[_testify_]

2. I saw a comedian once talk about applying the N word to

a brand name, in order to take the power away from the word - especially for a something positive, like a product everyone likes. Maybe that's part of this?

Her bit was something along the lines of using it for a brand of snack crackers - People would say "Oooh! Sour cream & onion niggers! Who brought those?!" The eventual punchline was that they would not be available in BBQ flavored. Poor taste, I know. But funny...

[SmokingJacket]

3. I'm going to trademark the term "clothing." nt

[rucky]

4. I've already trademarked the letter "C"

so you'll have to call it something else.

[SmokingJacket]

6. Damn! There goes my great idea! nt

[1932]

16. Trademark law is not the same as copyright law. It's not a monopoly

on using a word in all contexts. It's the right to use a word to identify a product that precludes other people from calling their products the same thing.

If you spent your life making and marketing a an innovative new catheter and you called it "C", you wouldn't want some Indonesian company to make a knock-off of dangerously inferior quality that killed people to call their catheter "C", would you?

You don't think that's fair do you? And it's not just for your sake. It's for customers' sake too. Occassionaly, trademark law is a matter of life and death for the public.

[1932]

15. You can't. It's descriptive. Can't trademark descriptive words.

Unless, you're calling something that isn't clothing "clothing." That would be OK.

[northzax]

5. can't do it

you cannot trademark derogatory terms.

[Dogmudgeon]

14. So I can't trademark a line of clothes called "Coulterwear"?

There goes "Schwartezenegga", too.

It so tough being an Equal Opportunity Offender™ these days!

--p!

[AspenRose]

7. That's insane.

And TOTALLY inappropriate.

BushCo is already setting civil rights back...why would someone want to aid and abet in that, and embolden racists even MORE?

*sigh*

[Hoosier Democrat]

8. Why would anyone want to???

The simple answer is MONEY. I am now fully convinced that we are living in some sort of "Cultural End Times". No one has any decency anymore and just about anything is for sale.

I wonder if this was how it was in Rome during the reigns of the "Mad Emperors"?

[1932]

17. Do you have any black friends?

[Ecumenist]

9. I hate things like this.....

I'm a black woman and I hate to see this because it makes it okay for the ones coming up to use this word and terminology to call one another. What's next? A female celebrity starting a lingerie line emblazoned with the term, "Ho' Bitch" in rhinestones across the chest and seat of their clothing?:wow:

[roguevalley]

10. I HATE that word in all its varieties. I remember when people USED

it ALL the time. I was hoping when it was dying out that it would go. This is very disturbing to those of us old enough to remember what it really means and how disappointed MLK and all the rest who suffered real hell for advances in our humanity together would be.

[Ecumenist]

13. Amen, Rogue, Amen. nt

:applause:

[AspenRose]

11. "Dykes on Bikes" and their battle for trademark

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/09/MNGQOG5D7P1.DTL&type=gaylesbian

"A lesbian motorcycle group in San Francisco declared victory Thursday in their fight for a federal trademark for the name "Dykes on Bikes."

The U.S. Patent and Trademark office twice rejected the group's application on the grounds the term "dyke" was offensive and derogatory. The office reversed itself after the group's lawyers appealed, submitting hundreds of pages of additional material that they said showed the slang word does not disparage lesbians.

"The applicant came in at the last moment with a lot of evidence to show that the community did not consider it disparaging," said Lynne Beresford, a U.S. commissioner for trademarks.

Vick Germany, president of the San Francisco Women's Motorcycle Contingent, a.k.a. Dykes on Bikes, called the decision a huge victory. "The word dyke has been used to put us down, and we have taken that name and reclaimed it as a source of pride," Germany said."

I think the difference here is that there are still plenty in the A-A community who realize the 'n' word as disparaging, derogatory and offensive, and I doubt Wayans would see the same kind of support for his endeavor.

[Gman]

12. Please don't let it be greed!

God, I hope not.

[Minnesota Libra]

18. I'll probably get royally flamed for this one but.....

.....I'll bet not one word would be said if someone wanted to trademark the word "honky" for a line of merchandise.

[Greeby]

19. Calling any of the Wayans' brothers actors is taking the piss

:crazy: