For Years We Have Been Telling You Every Word Is Trademarked & Now Even The ‘F” Word Is

2011 September 14
by Michael H. Berkens

If you have been a frequent reader of thedomains.com, you know we have been looking at the trademark system warning that every word, two letter, three letter and every saying your grandma taught you is trademarked somewhere in the world.

So we were not surprised to learn the even the “f” word has now been granted trademark protection.

In this case the trademark was granted in Germany for the word  ” Ficken”  which translated into F**K or F**king in English.

Spiegel.de is reporting that the highest court in Germany granted TM protection for “Ficken” a brand of peach schnapps produced by German liquor manufacturer EFAG.

“The firm had spent two years trying to win over officials, having initially been rejected by a lower court on the grounds that “Ficken” – the German word for f**k – was too offensive to be trademarked.”

“In its ruling, the Federal Patent Court said the application was undeniably vulgar but declared the sexual connotations did not promote discrimination or violate public morals.”

“The court, based in Munich, southern Germany, pointed out the word was frequently used in films and literature.”

No F**king joke.

So while TM interests bitch about their “rights” being infringed on, it seems that even arguably the most vulgar word in German is now subject to TM protection.

 

17 Responses leave one →
  1. 2011 September 15
    Suraj permalink

    Fucking awesome

  2. 2011 September 15

    Told you man….”BullS” is soon to be trademark too

  3. 2011 September 15
    John Berryhill permalink

    Damn.

    If they are going to charge royalties, that’s going to put a damper on things.

  4. 2011 September 15

    thedomains are the perfect example of how news are shared with readers. the domains are going very well and i am sure they will get high traffic and readers after some months. they are authentic and very timely writers and brings to us latest and up to date news about trademark.

  5. 2011 September 15
    Joe permalink

    is subject to TM protection”…

    for liquor.

    in Germany.

    All of us whose livelihoods depend on selling liquor in Germany and utilising the word ficken to do it are deeply troubled by this decision.

  6. 2011 September 15

    The most vulgar word in the German language is actually Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

  7. 2011 September 15
    MHB permalink

    Kevin

    That you would know the most vulgar word in any language would not come as a surprise to me.

    )):::

    But for this one I get a translation to English as:

    “Beef labeling law monitoring delegation”

    doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue

  8. 2011 September 15

    Beef labeling is considered sensual in some cultures. Alabama, for example.

  9. 2011 September 15
    Dave permalink

    By German liquor manufacturer EFAG…Hmm…E…Fag…

  10. 2011 September 15

    No ficking way! There goes 30 of my domains!

  11. 2011 September 15

    Completlty off topic but that is an intresting Bot comment from reeha@”super sale”

    Seems to grab the domain name and the topic name and blends into something that looks human at first glance.

  12. 2011 September 15

    MOTHER is also a TM the Noun that adjective modifies starts with F

    .MOM is the preferred Top Level Domain

  13. 2011 September 15

    Really? So what can they do with this trademark now?

  14. 2011 September 15
    LindaM permalink

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhh7Iu76yUA
    The Python clearly used this term in commerce first ;)

  15. 2011 September 16

    Unbelievable! How could a word “F” can be trademarked!

  16. 2011 September 16
    Back in the real world permalink

    Theo -

    Scrape box, blackhaters dont leave home without it. Well in fact they dont leave their bedrooms in their parents house much at all, but you know what I am saying.

  17. 2011 September 16

    The only German word I know is the word for “BRA” ….. “Stopemfromfloppin”.

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