[Noisebridge-discuss] Five Minutes of Fame - January 21st, 2010 8pm

Sai Emrys noisebridge at saizai.com
Wed Jan 20 00:05:32 UTC 2010


2010/1/19 noisebridge <noisebridge at saizai.com>:
> http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:i29e8c.2.12

Sorry, bad link. Fixed:

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=75790851
http://tmportal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow?SRCH=Y&isSubmitted=true&details=&SELECT=US+Serial+No&TEXT=75790851

Yes, John, they filed and obtained trademark in 1999, and filed some
additional paperwork in 2006. See above.

I read through the app and it's unclear whether it's for "five minutes
of fame", the phrase, or for some specific stylized version thereof.
Some parts of the app say it's for a "word mark" (the former), and
others say it's specifically for a stylized version.

In fact, the 1999 request for correction from the USPTO said they were
missing a proper drawing. Their drawing pages submitted afterwards -
there are two different versions - are pretty silly. One is the phrase
in allcaps in a random serif font, the other in title case in a
sansserif font.

I think they're confused about what a trademark is, and are attempting
to register the generic phrase (which is, well, generic - though the
examiner seems to have missed that) as if it were some specific
stylized phrase (which could be trademarked, but they haven't put any
uniqueness into it, nor used it in any consistently stylized way).

Also, patent examiners are incredibly nitpicky. They made 'em resubmit
because it wasn't in allcaps the first time. And pay extra because
they were doing both live and recorded shows - live is a service,
y'see, and recorded a good. $325 plz. Ah, bureaucrats.

The examiner didn't seem to have done any search at all to determine
whether the mark was original or generic, only whether there were
other equivalent registered marks.

(Incidentally, "15 minutes of fame" is registered too:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78826914
http://tmportal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow?SRCH=Y&isSubmitted=true&details=&SELECT=US+Serial+No&TEXT=78826914
)

Okay, that's enough trademark-law lolz for me.


tl;dr version: lol they think they have a brand

- Sai



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