Slashdot Mirror
Sarah Palin Seeks To Trademark Her Name
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has filed paperwork with the US Patent and Trademark Office in November to trademark her name. On her initial application, Palin listed usage of the trademark for a website featuring information about political issues; and educational and entertainment services, including motivational speaking in the fields of politics, culture, business and values. Legal experts say it is relatively unusual for politicians to formally trademark their names because they are generally not associated with commercially valuable products or services and that trademarking a name is more common for celebrities in the fields of entertainment, fashion or sports. 'Sarah is somebody who is now out of government and pursuing other activities, in particular, speaking engagements ... and it looks like she's looking to protect her name with those activities,' says attorney Claudia Ray."
We are going to be subject to this woman for years and years to come.
Does this mean she's trying to prevent others from using her name in articles/posts/blogs/etc without her approval or consent? Will she be able to use the DMCA to force removal of anything negative about her that she does't like?
$10 says she uses this as a club to try to quell speech that she doesn't like.
There is a war going on for your mind.
http://www.woosk.com/2008/10/parah-salin.html
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
So now we cant make any more SarahPorn?
...she's going to copy Dave Gorman, find a bunch of other Sarah Palins, and write a book/tv show around her adventures...
Maybe.. she's an entertainer pretending to be a politicans, infact did you know people PAY to hear the dumbest woman on the earth speak?
did you forget to take your meds?
Does this mean I can't use the Sarah Palin name on my brand of specially-bred mutant jackasses I'm going to sell?
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
yawn....
i've been calling her "that stupid cunt from alaska"... & nobody seems to have any problem figuring out who im talking about.
...is an effort at branding herself. And I'd be happy to help her. Can I start the fire and hold the branding iron, dear Sarah?
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
more common for celebrities in the fields of entertainment, fashion or sports
She is clearly in entertainment - how many TV shows are about her right now?
She is also in fashion - we all heard about her massive wardrobe budget when she was campaigning with McCain.
And her entertainment is sport - at least to her. She tells us about her heroic helicopter hunting trips, and her husbands awesome snowmobile races. Those definitely count as sport where she is.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
SarahPalinIsARetard.com
SarahPalinIsADumbCunt.com
SarahPalin ... well you get it.
Unless it's included in "entertainment services" she seems to have made a mistake. Perhaps she realized that having the trademark listed for pornography would make her a laughing stock? It's also possible that wouldn't be granted because of prior art. Does prior art count for trademarks?
It would only confuse those who don't know Pelosi is from California.
She's the Wicked Witch of the West.
Geeze!
The rise of the professional politician, who needs an armload of qualifications before he is welcome in office, is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they established a country in which the political process was open to all (well, except slaves and women). Many early congressmen were pretty simple folks, not much more clued-up than Palin.
The founding fathers failed when they did not regulate political parties in the constitution. Now we have them anyway, and there's not enough limits on what they are able to do.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm under the impression that a trademark must be associated with a certain product. That's why there's Linux soap. If Sarah Palin wants to register her name as a trademark, fine, that's her problem, but she cannot keep people from using it for other purposes.
I see this as good news then, it means she won't be running for office, as a political figure CANNOT exert such control over their name usage.
Now, you still can't sell products as "Approved by [Political figure]", but pretty much anything else is fair game.
God forbid you conservatards have to see an opinion that differs from yours.
She will never go away if everyone keeps clicking on every headline that contains her name.
Join me in avoiding her, and let's start talking about real issues.
What does Michael Palin say about this? - He has been around as an entertainer for a long time.
Sarah is a common womans name - I am sure there was one in the Bible.
A proud moment for the Palin family. Scumbag Levi Johnston must be very happy he got the hell out of Dodge. Problem is, he didn't get out of Bristol in time.
There is some wiggle room in the area the mark is registered though, so if you still want to register a "Sarah Palin Goat Breeding Service", you probably can.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
This is one of the early supporters of the "Teabaggers", yes, you know, the ridiculous right wing nut jobs who called themselves "teabaggers" until one of their kids showed them urbandictionary.com and they realized it meant laying your testicles on a passed out person's face and snapping pics.
Should we expect any different from her?
His trademark, of course, was filed while he was still purely an entertainer. Nevertheless in came in useful when he ran for governor and his opponent sent put a mailer with Jesse's likeness in his full blown wrestling regalia repleat with feathered roach clips and a boa. Ventura was able to sue to stop the mailing.
More interesting is whether such options would be viable where there was a larger conflation between political and entertainer personas. Unlike Ventura's situation there is no obvious bright line between Palin's persona as a politician and as an entertainer.
If Palin does get a trademark, I would hope that the courts would reject any trademark infingement case over references to Palin with regards to her political persona.
Neither so Sarahs with any last name other than Palin. In fact even other Sarah Palins don't have to worry unless they intend to market themselves in the same industry niche as Sarah Palin. If Palin is awarded a trademark on her name, someone with the given name Sarah Palin, for example, could market him or herself as a comedian and not have to worry at all. What it might do is give Palin grounds to sue Hustler if Hustler makes a sequel to Nailin' Paylin and clearly references the persona as described by the trademark.
She's not a politician, she's a celebrity. She is no more qualified to be a politician than Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ciccolina.
She's also one of many recent political figures to be an IP maximalist.
Ah, the tired talking points of the entirely clueless.
First of all, she was a very successful office holder in Alaska. Even after being savaged by the national media, her popularity never fell below 50% when she was governor. Second, she did some pretty amazing and worthwhile things during her governorship.
On the other hand, we have 0bama, who reads a teleprompter fairly well. He had less time in public office before becoming President, and as Senator he didn't do much besides vote "Present". We're all getting the treat of seeing how well electing 0 is working out.
At least Sarah Palin loves America and believes in American Exceptionalism. I'd rather have her as President than 0 by a factor of about 1000.
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
The article says Sarah is out of government. That's a big load off my mind. Now I can lump her in with other mindless celebrities like Paris Hilton and the Kardashian gaggle.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Does this mean she's trying to prevent others from using her name in articles/posts/blogs/etc without her approval or consent? Will she be able to use the DMCA to force removal of anything negative about her that she does't like?
As the name implies, the Digital Millennium COPYRIGHT Act applies to copyright law, not trademark law. With a registered trademark, she can prevent others from using her name on commercial products where there's a likelihood of consumer confusion that she's endorsing, sponsoring, or created the goods. Like, if you sell "Sarah Palin's Gun Cozy," you'll get hit with an infringement suit. If you post a blog entry saying "Sarah Palin's a greedy doofus," this is entirely outside trademark law.
The Palinator ... seeing as she pretty much wrecks everything in politics that she touches.
The Dems are going to be VERY unhappy about this.
First of all, she was a very successful office holder in Alaska. Even after being savaged by the national media, her popularity never fell below 50% when she was governor. Second, she did some pretty amazing and worthwhile things during her governorship.
If you define 'successful' as not getting arrested or indited, then yes. Otherwise, not so much. Remember, she was running against Murkowski Sr., an ancient, decrepit, arrogant fossil. She didn't do very much at all during her (brief) tenure and most of what actually was accomplished was done by her Lt. Governor, Sean Parnell (who is now the real governor). Her 'accomplishments' included selling Murkowski's jet and brokering some oil / gas legislation that will likely get overturned in the current legislative session because it has more holes than a MacPro.
At least Sarah Palin loves America and believes in American Exceptionalism. I'd rather have her as President than 0 by a factor of about 1000.
Palin loves herself and not much else. She's a classic demagogue-to-be. If you want American politicians to be shallow, vapid caracatures, then fine, that's your call, but most of us don't think she is suited for running anything much more complicated than a crayon.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
It isn't my intention to troll. Please /. editors. No more Sarah Palin stories. No one cares. That is all..
One only has to do a brief search of ancestory.com to see that the former governer of Alaska is not the first Sarah Palin to exist. Therefore, wouldn't that fall under prior art?
yo, slashdot, why are you reporting ANYTHING about her?
I know the latest thing people patent is intellectual property, but wouldn't that be an oxymoron where Sarah Palin is concerned?
You mean there might be TWO of her? Arrgghh.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
If instead of campaigning on her own image, Sarah Palin spent half that time studying world history... er... if she spent that whole time studying instead of, you know, then... well...
Okay, I guess she'd need a lot more time than that to shore up her deficiencies.
Ponies!!
Gravity Sucks
I'd still hit it
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
I guess we'll have to start using her Wasilla nickname now: Nutty McNutfucker.
I'm glad your amused. :) I don't think you read my other posts dimwit or you'd see that I don't adore Palin. In fact she seems like a nut to me. It's just hard to believe that she's so hated. She's really done mostly nothing other than be governor of Alaska and run for VP of the USA. Meanwhile we've got certified nutcases like Pelosi steadily helping fuck the country up, a whole congress of them from both sides of the aisle. Yeah I'm no Palin fan but she ain't the one putting the fucking on me right now....that nasty cunt Pelosi and her cronies in congress and her man Obama in the White House. I wish to hell Pelosi would quit politics and take her ass out to the desert in Cali for her own reality show. Have a nice day and stay anonymous there stupid.
and while i'm at it, might as well cover the atoms within a drop of water.
Palindrome and Palindromedary too?
That's ok, we just need to make her name a ubiquitous term so her trademark protection will be lost.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks
Culling a few from Urban Dictionary, how about:
Palin ("Pulling a"): Quitting when faced with adversity; Abandoning the responsibility entrusted to you; Quitting after realizing you can't withstand basic criticisms and complications of your job.
maybe she wants to cash in on "Steampunk Palin" while some people are still able to keep their food down.
Steampunk Palin comic, not for weak of stomach
(ok, back to my Palin-free February)
I think we should all just start calling her "She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named".
Wait... there are doubtlessly other Sarah Palins. According to a web site that specializes in such things*, there are three. Couldn't any of those people -- particularly if older -- effectively squash the application? --Tom *I'm not giving the link because it has obnoxious pop-unders. You're welcome.
Tom Geller
Maybe that could be an excuse for the MSM to refrain from reporting on her every move. Her fifteen minutes of fame were up years ago.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I wonder what Colbert... err I mean Mika Brzezinski will think of this?
If she doesn't get this done really quickly, Mattel will make a Caribou Barbie doll before she gets a chance to stop them.
How ya like dat?
If my family's name is "Palin" this means she owns the rights to my daughter if she's was named Sarah? What about the "prior" art argument? According to howmanyofme dot com there are 790,847 named Sarah, 1,178 people with the sir name of Palin, and 3 people named Sarah Palin. Do the other 3 people have to pay a licensing fee if the former governor get her patent (very likely give the behavior of the U.S. PTO of late)?
Besides her name, she might also want to trademark: "Vacuous Twit, Governor Dim-Witty, Gobsmacking Imbecile, and Opportunistic Airhead." Of course this hardly distinguishes her from legions of folks (from both sides of the aisle) in D.C. these days, it just establishes her as one of many aspiring know-nothings who wants to reduce our country to a religious based fascist state.
I heard the ugliest job in Washington during the "Dubyah years" was the person who had the task of putting their hand up his rear to operate his mouth. If Sarah should get elected, its nice to know that poor guy will have work again.
because she & the palindrones (i should tm that;-) personify the american taliban*, which poses a significant threat to the enlightenment & rationality that has brought us the modern world that enables nerds like us to exist...
* the kleenex/generic sense: fundamentalist terrorists** who want 2 drag us back 2 the middle ages:-P
** just ask george tiller:-{
This is the first time I've heard "birther" used in an anti-abortion/pro-life context. The only context I've heard "birther" before were people doubting the birthright citizenship of Obama. Lets not confuse the terms.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
You know it's amazing what a moron you are. Because I disagree with you or don't worship Obama and Pelosi I must be a Republican? Geez! The fact is that I've stated....many times...that I think Palin is nutty and I'm not fond of most of the Repubs either. This is the problem with American Politics, everyone has their side, D or R and if anyone disagrees with them they must be on the other side. I have my side. My side is I'm tired of the ass fucking I get from BOTH sides. I want the fuckers out of my wallet. I'm sick of more and more and more and more money thrown at every problem and it just gets wasted. It's not just the Dems, when W was in there he found plenty of ways for his cronies to milk the cow just like the current figurehead is doing for his bunch. It needs to stop but you morons keep thinking that if only everyone would listen to your side it would all get better. Wise up! The 2 party shuffle is killing us. Yes, Boner is just more BS. We go from one scam artist to another. Palin is not a problem for me because she holds no office. Why waste all this hatred on someone off making money doing reality shows when we have all these clowns in congress finding ways to piss away trillions of dollars? Ah well....you keep blaming FOX news and Palin for all your problems. When the country finally runs out of money I wonder what you'll do then? Maybe you'll think about how you kept falling for the same ole shell game...nah....you'll blame a goofy ex governor and mean ole FOX news for stealing it all. Stay Anonymous there coward. No one can figure out what an ignorant little shit you are that way.
The name is not linked to a politically viable product.