You can, however, put a trademark on a word, which stops others from using that word commercially . even if it's something really common, or really stupid.
Trademarking phrases is nothing new: The most famous case is sports announcer Michael Buffer, who currently makes more
jerseys china wholesale money from his phrase "Let's get ready to rumble" than he does from actually announcing boxers and letting them know that there might be rumbling. According to Hester's court papers, the main difference is that Songz' version "resembles an animal like or nonhuman squeal which begins with a distinct 'yeeee' sound before finishing with a squeal like 'uuuup' sound," as opposed to Hester's own "monosyllabic sounding guttural auction bidding phrase." Here's a comparison so you can judge for yourself:
Having carefully analyzed both sounds, we've reached the conclusion that they both sound like dickwads.
Then there's Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, who has a trademark on the word "lollapalooza" despite the fact that it had existed for about 100 years before his alternative rock festival of the same name started out in the '90s (and about 105 years before it stopped being relevant). Wait, no.
You know that one big football game that happens every year? The one we use as an excuse to sit in front of a TV and stuff our faces with pizza, chicken wings and guacamole? We are, of course, talking about the Super Bowl or, as the National Football League would have us call it, "That Football Thing That Must Not Be
cheap jerseys Named.""And the Huskies score a touch thingy!"
You see, the NFL holds a trademark on the phrase "Super Bowl," and each year, their lawyers send out thousands of pre emptive letters to advertisers, media outlets and even small businesses in the host city reminding them of what can and cannot be said, which are usually followed by at least a further 100 cease and desist letters for those who didn't get the message the first time.
Why? Well, as you probably know, companies pay tens of millions of dollars to air their ads during the Super Bowl. The idea is not to devaluate the event by slapping the words "Super Bowl" everywhere, even by people who are ultimately helping to promote the freaking game, like, say, a local bar that wants to advertise that it's offering $0.99 chili dogs on game day. Super Bowl Super Bowl Super Bowl.
So that's how the league wound up slapping small bars and restaurants with fines for advertising Super Bowl parties or specials pay
cheap NFL jerseys close attention when February rolls around and you'll notice that even your local pizzerias, wing joints and guacamole troughs aren't using the two magic words to advertise. Likewise, if a radio station wants to give out Super Bowl tickets, unless they're officially affiliated with the NFL, they can't even say the words on the air during the promotion, which is how you
Chinese wholesale jerseys end up accidentally winning tickets to the Puppy Bowl instead.
We've all had that moment where we're looking at an infomercial on TV and we think, "A blender that's also a hat? I thought of that first! I should have gotten a patent." It takes a special kind of person to proclaim the same thing while visiting a zoo, though.
It turns out that a fair few people have not only taken natural selection to court, but also walked out with a patent for a living organism.