Slashdot Mirror
Fine Brothers File For Trademark On Word "React"
DewDude writes: You've probably seen them on YouTube: Fine Brothers are the two behind the video series Teens React, Kids React, and Elders React. Well, the two seem to feel they somehow invented this whole thing and have now filed for a very broad trademark. The USPTO filing says the trademark will be published tomorrow and looking at the filing; it is literally for the word "react" and simply shows a screenshot of their YouTube page. They have also apparently gotten approval for "Parents React," "Celebrities React," and "Parents React"; as well as filed applications for things such as "Do They Know It," "Lyric Breakdown," "People v. Technology," and "Try Not To Smile Or Laugh."
It's time for another example of "Slashdot Totally Misunderstands Trademarks".
Trademarks (in this context, word marks) are not "universal exclusive rights to a word". They're exclusive rights within a certain context. For any given common word, there's generally a dozen or two different companies with trademarks on it in different contexts. There's already 342 trademarks for the word "React", 139 of which are currently active. Indian Industries has it for "paddles used in ball games", while Horizon Hobby has it for "remote controlled hobby vehicles", while Fine Brothers Properties has it for webisodes, while Dekka Technologies, LLC has it for weapons simulators... and so forth. There are no restrictions on anyone using the same word in a different context. You can even trademark the word for your usage of it in a different context.
I wouldn't make a big deal of this, but it seems like not just slashdot but literally 99,99% of the general population seems to think that a trademark is a context-free concept, that if, say, a cell phone manufacturer trademarks the word "jump" then that means that you can't use the word "jump" anymore in regular conversations, or something like that. What it actually means is that you can't make a cell phone called "jump", or anything other cell phone name that would be readily confused for it, or something in the same category as cell phones called "jump". But you can still make a car called jump or a refrigerator called jump or whatnot.
It's times like this I wish I had a friend named 'The Professor'.
Copyright != Trademark. Understanding the difference is crucial to understanding the issue.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Then someone better tell YouTube because they're already issuing DMCA take downs on videos using the word React. What's that stand for again? Digital Millennium Copyright Act? Huh, wonder where people get the phrase "Copyright takedown"? No idea.
Celebrity worship is a poor substitute for Deity worship and costs more to boot.
The fine brothers were losing like 200k subscribers a day over this, it was very unpopular. It appears they are rescinding their attempt: their post about it
Fine Bros have backed down. https://medium.com/@FineBrothe...
They were already doing DMCA takedowns of any videos they happened across that contained "React" in the title for alleged copyright violation.
These guys are another set of Shkrelis. They are nothing more than rent-seeking scum trying to game the system for profit, while contributing nothing of value or substance in return (unless you think goading a little kid to have a meltdown while you're recording him provides "value").
Maybe we could bring back tarring and feathering?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
AFAIK, in US English, the punctuation should be inside the quotation marks, while in British English (and Norwegian, yay) the punctuation should be outside.