A Rush to Trademark Racial Slurs
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jrjones9933
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Joined: 13 May 2011
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Posts: 13,144
Location: The end of the northwest passage
Since the recent SCOTUS decision in favor of the Pan-Asian band, The Slants, people have begun to seek copyright and trademark protections for a slew of offensive terms. The story is rife with examples.
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/21/538608404 ... sive-words
Quote:
Why swastikas?
STEVE MAYNARD: Because the term has an incendiary meaning behind it.
CHANG: Yeah.
MAYNARD: And it's currently used as a symbol of hate. And if we can own the brand, we will be able to control the sale of the brand and the use of the brand as well.
CHANG: Oh, so you're trying to basically grab the swastika so real, actual racists and haters can't grab the swastika as a...
MAYNARD: Correct.
CHANG: ...Registered trademark.
MAYNARD: Correct.
CHANG: But there's a catch. Maynard can't just get the trademark, put it in a drawer and make sure nobody else uses it. To keep a trademark, he actually needs to sell a swastika product. So he will - blankets, shirts, flags. But he plans to make these products so expensive he's hoping no one will ever buy them.
MAYNARD: If you want to buy that swastika flag, you've got to buy it through us. And it's going to be a thousand dollars each.
STEVE MAYNARD: Because the term has an incendiary meaning behind it.
CHANG: Yeah.
MAYNARD: And it's currently used as a symbol of hate. And if we can own the brand, we will be able to control the sale of the brand and the use of the brand as well.
CHANG: Oh, so you're trying to basically grab the swastika so real, actual racists and haters can't grab the swastika as a...
MAYNARD: Correct.
CHANG: ...Registered trademark.
MAYNARD: Correct.
CHANG: But there's a catch. Maynard can't just get the trademark, put it in a drawer and make sure nobody else uses it. To keep a trademark, he actually needs to sell a swastika product. So he will - blankets, shirts, flags. But he plans to make these products so expensive he's hoping no one will ever buy them.
MAYNARD: If you want to buy that swastika flag, you've got to buy it through us. And it's going to be a thousand dollars each.
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