Judge Does Mental Gymnastics To Deem Left Nut Brewing Trademark To Be Non-Offensive
from the paging-the-redskins dept
We had just been talking about the awkward place the Washington Redskins most recent legal filing has left the government in, regarding the team's trademark. In that filing, the team pointed out the sheer hypocrisy of the government's stance that the term "Redskins" is too offensive to receive trademark registration status, yet the government has seen fit to award that status to all kinds of terms and phrases that are equally if not more offensive on any number of levels. But it isn't only for already-registered marks that the awkwardness exists. For new applications too, the courts now have to weigh whether offense applies to granting new trademarks. And, frankly, it's causing some in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to employ some serious mental gymnastics when ruling.
The most recent example of this concerns a brewery out of Georgia named Left Nut Brewing Company. A recent ruling has allowed the brewery to trademark its name.
On November 16, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decided to allow a Georgia-based brewery to register their name as a trademark . Established about 30 years ago, “Left Nut Brewing Company” will finally be allowed to register after the reversal of an examiner’s decision that the brewery’s name was too vulgar for registration.To get the appeal board to allow this, the brewery pointed to langauge on its own website about how the name was derived. The site claims that its name is not of the vernacular one might initially think, but is instead a vernacular use with, according to the site, a different meaning.
Instead, it is “built on a vernacular which epitomizes the willingness to give up something of extreme value to do something or create something unique.” In allowing the name to become a trademark, Judge Shaw used such meaning for the phrase to defend his ruling saying that the figure of speech can mean a multitude of things and only one was arguably vulgar.Okay, let's not play around. The only meaning this refers to is indeed about a willingness to give up something of value: a man's left-leaning testicle. That's it. That's what left nut means. Now, I happen to love the brewery's name and think it should be adopted in every kind of industry, but the claims about the name having some other etherial meaning is laughable at best. But the judge's ruling claims to have bought the brewery's argument so as to grant it a trademark.
What's becoming clear is that even having to go through these mental gymnastics is dumb and nothing more than a waste of time. The easiest solution would be for the government to get out of the offense-measurement business entirely on trademark matters.
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Filed Under: brewery, confusion, left nut beer, offensive, redskins, trademark, uspto
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But wait...!
Damn! Wrong again!
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Just because you think it's ridiculous doesn't mean it's still not an ethnic slur.
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How dare you! I'm offended that you would even suggest that it isn't offensive, much less come right out and publicly state it! Why don't you go crawl back under your anonymous rock?
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Re: But wait...!
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are they called the n word?
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I have native american blood myself enough to register as well but I do not feel offended in the slightest.
I rather take this view when it comes to being offended.
[quote]
Only a fool would be offended by something not intended to offend them, and it is a greater fool that is offended by something meant to offended them for they have played into the hands of their enemy.
~cant remember
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― Brigham Young
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Is it offensive? It's definitely vulgar, so yes, to a lot of people it is offensive. Especially the "Suck my" usage.
But you're going to focus on the first usage, the one that's less vulgar and slightly less offensive to some. Well, it's been said that the name "Redskins" is not in reference to the ethnic slur, but to the bravery and strength of the Native Americans. So if we're still fighting against "Redskins" because of it's one offensive meaning, then we have to fight this one because of it's one offensive meaning.
Now, to be perfectly clear, I don't think the US government should have any say on what is offensive and what isn't. For the same reason we have the First Amendment.
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Every time I hear someone trying to be politically correct, I just laugh aloud, roll my eyes at the ceiling and shake my head in disbelief.
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Re: Redskins is an ethnic slur against Native Americans
All names of professional sports teams that I'm aware of are terms of admiration or have positive associations.
(If you know of any counter-examples at all, I'd love to hear about them.)
If "redskins" has multiple meanings, it's obvious that the positive interpenetration was intended.
Nobody names their team after something they despise.
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If they're from Nigeria, they're called Nigerians.
(Note the difference in the final vowel. Oh, and Google is your friend.)
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they are the n word ...
PLUS iens or ians
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are so expensive that it is impossible to follow and be PC compliant
it is like trying to work on a windows pc while it updates and restarts every 30 mins, you just can`t afford it
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Re: Re: Redskins is an ethnic slur against Native Americans
I know it is a typo, but I laughed.
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Clarity
What's clear is this is yet another judge who first comes to his conclusion and then comes up with legal reasoning to get there, rather than the other way around.
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Left Nut is short for...
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See any prejudices here?
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God, I hate this lame phrase.
For f*ck's sake: no one has homework assignments on the internet.
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