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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."
I'd like to trademark "fuck off and die", then use it liberally in these cases.
"Oh no... he found the
...They said "Parents React" twice. I guess they really like parents reacting.
That the trademark office had 300+ applications for the word "react" on file. Eli the Computer Guy did a fine a video on this controversy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byy8e37spOg
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
Intellectual Property, translated from Latinate words to Anglo-Saxon ones, is Thought Ownership. Then the absurdity is clear.
Of all the I.P. laws --- patent, copyright, and trademark --- trademark to me made the most sense. I don't want another company calling itself Apple Computer. Trademark, then, is just like namespacing, just common sense.
But here I see that even that can be abused. It just goes to show that any law in the category of intellectual property should be sharply restricted, dealt with as if it had a big radioactivity symbol on it.
As for patents, they should just be completely obliterated. I have never seen a patent where I said, if we didn't grant this patent, we would never have got this thing invented. The inventor would have been too scared.
As for copyright, I can't yet say it should be obliterated. But the current terms are way too long. 30 years tops.
As for trademark, like I said, it just helps fight confusion, but still it should be dealt with with the utmost contempt for the requester. It would be better to hold off on granting one, and see what happens, than to grant too many. This is nothing but abuse by the Fine Brothers to unfairly stomp out competition.
Except that's how it's going to be applied. Use the word react in your youtube title, tags, or description and it'll be yanked! (or FineBros will take your ad money) I understand the business necessity to trademark your work(s), but in the context of youtube, it's merely a means to bully everyone. Even if that's not their intent, it's going to be very hard not to.
Ask Devinsupertramp how that works.
The problem is content producers on Youtube are actually losing money because their title has the word "REACT" in it and the contentID that automates detection of infringing videos are tagging these videos so the creators are losing their ad revenue and getting strikes against their account.
Another problem is that these guys have millions of subscribers so their a big revenue stream for Youtube so they have of course sided with the Fine Brothers.
The Fine Brothers didn't create this kind of content. They are nowhere near the first to use it but they are still basically taking ownership of other people's ideas.
I've subscribed to uploaders who've had these problems and Youtube is notoriously difficult to deal with because you have to prove you're not stealing, instead of the accuser having to make a proper case.
Just today I saw a video of a quad-copter being attacked by a hawk, and it was uploaded by the original owner but the video was flagged by some Korean news agency as theirs even though they had no relation to the video aside from using it in their broadcast. The big stinker is that the uploader was donating the ad revenue to a charity and so they've lost out on a couple grand already.
The system Youtube is using is very flawed but they don't seem to care about the grief and frustration they are causing users.
The most satisfying thing is a live stream of the Fine Bros current number of subscribers and the number just kept plummeting by 20-30 every few seconds.
Schadenfreude.
Many Youtube videos have already been taken down because they have mentioned the words "react" or "reaction" over this. They're also quickly tracking down Youtube videos that use the base word "react" in any way and asking for a cut of ad revenue or be taken down. It's not only an overreaching trademark, but it's being quickly abused.
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.