NSFW Trademark Actually NSF Those Without Humor

from the chill-out dept

A bunch of folks have been sending in the fact that the ever-popular (reasonably so, I should add) Fark has registered for a trademark on "NSFW," the popular abbreviation used widely across the internet that stands for "Not Safe For Work." We ignored the story, as we knew it had to be some sort of joke or prank, fitting with Fark's (or just Drew Curtis') outlook on life. However, the stories about the trademark application have gotten so bad that Curtis had to post a "calm down guys" post about it himself -- though he won't say what sort of prank he's planning to pull. The trademark app itself is real -- though Drew clearly has something else planned beyond just the trademark. Either way, the whole story is reminiscent of Despair Inc.'s successful trademark of :-( years ago. That, too, was something of a joke, though (again) many people didn't get it and angrily responded to the company (Drew, consider yourself warned...). Of course, all of this would be fun and games if there weren't more serious legal battles involving similar trademarks -- such as the worldwide fight over who gets to trademark the smiley face. No matter what Drew's got planned, it's unclear if it can be any more absurd than real life trademark ridiculousness.

Filed Under: fark, nsfw, trademarks