To see why this isn't as black-and-white as it looks at first, imagine if this was the story of someone innocently selling t-shirts on eBay with the word "Gap" printed on them, and then being outraged when a big American company bullies them, claiming that they have a trademark on the word Gap. How dare they?! How can somebody claim to 'own' a word that's been around for centuries? (Well done, you just learned what a trademark is. If you're still not convinced, make it a story about selling computers with the word "apple" on instead...)
FWIW, I think there is a subtle difference here: even if he was genuinely the first person to come up with the idea of putting those words on a t-shirt, the slogan is doing more than just marking out the product as coming from his company - he's trading off the slogan's existing value as a recognisable phrase that people would enjoy having on a t-shirt. But it's certainly not a frivolous claim, and I wouldn't want to be the one arguing against it in court.
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To see why this isn't as black-and-white as it looks at first, imagine if this was the story of someone innocently selling t-shirts on eBay with the word "Gap" printed on them, and then being outraged when a big American company bullies them, claiming that they have a trademark on the word Gap. How dare they?! How can somebody claim to 'own' a word that's been around for centuries? (Well done, you just learned what a trademark is. If you're still not convinced, make it a story about selling computers with the word "apple" on instead...)
FWIW, I think there is a subtle difference here: even if he was genuinely the first person to come up with the idea of putting those words on a t-shirt, the slogan is doing more than just marking out the product as coming from his company - he's trading off the slogan's existing value as a recognisable phrase that people would enjoy having on a t-shirt. But it's certainly not a frivolous claim, and I wouldn't want to be the one arguing against it in court.