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Trademarking Pwnage

from the pwned! dept

Wed, Mar 5th 2008 2:08pm — Mike Masnick

The folks over at Against Monopoly alert us to the fact that a Finnish software/gaming development company has applied for a US trademark on the term "pwnage" in the video game space. You'd think that the nearly 2 million Google results that show up on the term would suggest that it's already generic and not deserving of a trademark, but I guess we'll find out what the USPTO has to say about the matter soon enough.

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Filed Under: pwnage, trademarks

17 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 2:39pm

This is stupid. Trademarking/Patenting words used in pop culture? What is the angle on this? Charge $0.0002 royalty each time the word is used?
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Greg, 5 Mar 2008 @ 2:46pm

On the plus side, if they trademark the word "pwnage", then maybe people will stop saying it.

So that's good.
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- Tarielen, 6 Mar 2008 @ 8:15am
  
  Re: Good?
  How is it a good thing to have a word that's been used for years taken away from the gaming community because some suits want to get some free advertisement? the word 'pwnage' is almost as important as the word 'noob' which are both strong pillars of bringing gamers from around the world to become a single and whole community. Language has been a barrier all around the world and gamers have breached the barrier with their l33t sp34k. To have a company try and take away words that have been used for years just to make money is frankly an insult to gamers. So, no, I do not think it is a "good" thing to make people stop sp34king l33t.
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TheDock22, 5 Mar 2008 @ 2:51pm

Well...
I guess if they can trademark the smiley face ( :) ) they can trademark anything.
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ehrichweiss, 5 Mar 2008 @ 2:55pm

anyone care to wager..
how long till they get pwned for doing this?
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matt, 5 Mar 2008 @ 3:18pm

pwned
at what point does absurdity make you wonder how its not a crime? This being no exception of course.
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markamus, 5 Mar 2008 @ 4:03pm

Unfortunate precident
Frito lay trademarked the word Munchies. Stoners have been using that word for decades.
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PRMan, 5 Mar 2008 @ 4:37pm

Name of a Game?
If they are trademarking the name of a game called "PWNAGE" then by all means, let them. Notice that there are games with trademarked names that consist of other plainer words like "Doom" and "Descent" and "Portal".

It doesn't mean they're going to sue everyone in existence for using the word "pwnage", just everyone who tries to make a game with that name.
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Charlie Potatoes, 5 Mar 2008 @ 4:48pm

Trademarks
Actually...if you google my name it will offer a link to urban dictionary where it will say that I created the definitive definition (or is that redundant?)...for pwnz, which is the infinitive of the word in question. So I think that I own the word and I will sue everyone, including Google and Tech Dirt if I don't get paid a lot of money. I am certain there is some justifiable reason for this...
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:(, 5 Mar 2008 @ 4:50pm

http://despair.com/frownonthis.html
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Charlie Potatoes, 5 Mar 2008 @ 5:09pm

pwnzship
http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Charlie+Potatoes :o)
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katphish, 5 Mar 2008 @ 5:24pm

looking ahead
They have a product they want to name "Pwnage".
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Dr. Cakey, 5 Mar 2008 @ 6:07pm

?
And what company would name a product Pwnage? Such a word can only be used to describe badly animated flash games.
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- Tarielen, 7 Mar 2008 @ 2:11pm
  
  Re: ?
  umm.... www.purepwnage.com
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:19pm

Futuremark doesn't even make any good games. Their call to fame are their 3d benchmarking apps. So wtf do they know about pwnage?
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Ethan Bauley, 7 Mar 2008 @ 1:57pm

Woah, meta
I will wager that this goes through.

No reason it couldn't be used as a name for a game/service/etc

the TM itself is very meta, tho ;-)
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Scott, 8 Mar 2008 @ 10:30am

www.purepwnage.com has been using pwnage as a product name and plans to take leagal action against Futuremark.

Really whats next??
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