Fucking TTAB Says FUCT Owner Can’t Trademark ‘Fuck’ Because That Word Fucking Belongs To All Of Us
from the fucking-right? dept
I love this story so much I want it to find other similar vulgar stories so that those stories can have little baby vulgar stories for me to read. You may recall the saga of Erik Brunetti, founder of FUCT, a fashion brand with a name supposedly standing for Friends U Can’t Trust. We wrote about FUCT at first being denied a trademark on the brand over vulgarity concerns, a decision overturned on appeal on First Amendment grounds. It was a good ruling on the merits, as the government shouldn’t be in the business of saving our ears from naughty words based on its judgement of naughtiness.
Well, Brunetti is back at it again. He applied for a trademark on the word “fuck” for a bunch of fashion categories, such as bags, jewelery, cell phone cases, and the like. That application too was denied. Brunetti again went to the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board, which upheld the denial of the application, but not over concerns for vulgarity. No, in a magical moment, instead the TTAB essentially suggested that “fuck” is a word that belongs to all of us.
Now, I could pretend that reading the court document, embedded below, wasn’t an absolute joy, so rife is it with one of my favorite words in any language. But I won’t do that to you. But it’s also a good document on, again, the merits. In the document, the TTAB has no issue with the vulgarity of the word. Instead, it points out correctly that the word “fuck” simply doesn’t function as a trademark, given that it offers nothing to the public in terms of the source of the products.
The function of a trademark is to identify a single source and to distinguish that seller’s goods from others, and the Trademark Act does not allow registration unless a proposed mark serves this function. The record before us establishes that the word FUCK expresses well-recognized familiar sentiments and the relevant consumers are accustomed to seeing it in widespread use, by many different sources, on the kind of goods identified in the FUCK Applications. Consequently, we find that it does not create the commercial impression of a source indicator, and does not function as a trademark to distinguish Applicant’s goods and services in commerce and indicate their source. Team Jesus, 2020 USPQ2d 11489, at *18-19. Consequently, Applicant cannot appropriate the term exclusively to itself, denying others the ability to use it freely. “‘[I]t is the type of expression that should remain free for all to use.’” Univ. of Kentucky v. 40-0, LLC, 2021 USPQ2d 253, at *36 (quoting Eagle Crest, 96 USPQ2d at 1230).
“[FUCK] is the type of expression that should remain free for all to use…” now there is something to put on a t-shirt.
So this is where we land. It was a good thing that FUCT was able to get its trademark. That term is a source identifier. The commonly spelled version of “fuck”, however, is completely different. As the TTAB says, that’s a word that fucking belongs to all of us.
Filed Under: fuck, fuckety fuck fuck, trademark, ttab
Companies: fuct
Comments on “Fucking TTAB Says FUCT Owner Can’t Trademark ‘Fuck’ Because That Word Fucking Belongs To All Of Us”
Hey, Eric Brunetti. Get FUCT, ya greedy bastard! 😸
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Just tell his customers to go to FCUK.
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I’d much rather just tell Brunetti himself to go FCUK himself, but that’s an unrelated trademark.
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Not as offensive as telling some to FSCK themselves though.
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File system check? I don’t see how that’s offensive. But if you need FSCK you’re FUCT in the first place.
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Is this the article you wanted? 🙂
Now watch Eric Brunetti try to get a trademark on “fich” in Germany. He sure seems dumb enough. Q-/
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No, no, it’s spelled “Fick”. That’s the noun, the verb is “ficken”. I always liked the English form better. Just look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JquGRUhk64I You would never find a German yelling “fick! fick! fiiiick!” like in that video. The U in FUCK drastically improves cursability. (To be fair, “fick dich” (fuck you) can sometimes be encountered.)
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Either the spelling’s changed or the dictionary I read it in was wrong.
Fuckin’ A.
Went looking for the chart that showed all of the parts of language FUCK can be (noun, adverb, etc.) found a video instead… all the cool kids link video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLNsSzcXuts
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I thought you were going to link to the diversity of the word.
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Talking of, my favourite chant is, “Fuck, fuck, fucketty, fuck. Fucketty, fucketty, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Rhythmic and soothing even when I’m not frustrated, but just need to stim.
What kind of shiphead tries to trademark a generic word?
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Ohio State.
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I’d say you forgot to mention which word they trademarked, but I imagine you don’t want to face a lawsuit.
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Like it would be the first one. 😉
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And for a brief moment, some idiots in Singapore.
Yes, someone tried to trademark cosplay…
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ComicCon
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Bill Gates.
Let's hope we can follow this case
We could be in for some heavily redacted rulings.
I’d like to see the DPIA for this post please.
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I haven’t got access to it, but I imagine it shows that the younger the child, the less harm the word ‘fuck’ will do to them. After all, words have no meaning without context, and without meaning, words have no power.
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Probably the latter. Actually, I say the younger the child the less harm as they use it in daily social interactions.
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Way to misinterpret what was said. Like Autie, I was imagining the toddler who comes out with the word and learning of its power from the reactions of the adults around them.
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And I supplied a joke. Lightening up!
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And yet that “joke” still didn’t manage to be as dumb as you. m-/
Love that it’s always in all caps. I’m imagining the trademark attorney shouting the word FUCK at the top of his lungs every time it came up.
Surely some version of fuck can be a trademark
Surely the word “fuck” in a distinctive font with some distinctive background elements could be trademarked. Any competent trademark lawyer should be warning clients off of attempts to trademark words in common use. (cf. The impossibility of trademarking “ugg” absent distinctive trade dress, in Australia, where the word simply means a fleece-inward sheepskin boot.)
Samuel L. Jackson says “The fuck you will!”
So…!
They got fucked.
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Er, no. The actual line is, “And then they all FUCT.” 😉
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Oh, uh… that’s actually perversely funny. Messed up, but funny.