Slightly reprehensible trade mark filings

At the moment there are a lot of people who realise the value of registering a trade mark. The sad thing is that this comes as a response after the serious events that took the life of an innocent man. 

In the UK there is a business man wanting to create a non-profit organisation using the terms BLACK LIVES MATTER and I CAN’T BREATHE for two different ventures. 

Those terms are generic and as such should never be registered as trade marks. Sometimes when I experience an asthmatic attack I might say: I can’t breathe! (Yes, I sometimes get attacks now I no longer live by the sea).

By granting exclusive use of that term, to a business or no-profit organisation, people would be infringing upon the mark if they said ‘I can’t breathe’. The good thing is that in the article that has inspired this response of mine these words can be found: “This trademark is to be used for charitable work and not for personal gain on the back of recent unfortunate events.” 

To me that makes a HUGE difference, because that shows me the intention behind the registration is different from the others.

There have been several applications not least in the US and to me that is slightly reprehensible because they are taking advantage of the situation. 

Further more as these are generic and none-distinctive terms the odds are they are not going to be granted as trade marks since trade marks are used to distinguish one undertaking from an other. Black Lives Matters is a movement with social impact and campaigning as the main reason for being and not a business or undertaking for that matter and probably never was envisaged that way.  

There is also the objection to a registration that rides on what is referred to as ‘bad faith’ and contrary to public morality, meaning that whomever is filing does so knowing that they will be restricting someone else from use. 

The granting of exclusivity to those marks might even cause severe reactions from the public such as people taking offence and be alarmed by it. 

Reactions on Twitter from people in the trade mark community have been rather strong to the applications, with attorneys describing them as “stupid”, “pathetic” and “shameless”! 

What is even worse in my point of view is that there are people wanting to register GEORGE FLOYD as a trade mark. I mean come on people, what is that about? The good news is that the two filings, in the UK & EU have been withdrawn by the 10th of June 2020. 

In the UK at least, the UKIPO tends to view the names of deceased famous individuals as “more likely to be seen by consumers as merely an historical reference to the subject matter of the goods, rather than the trade source of the goods”. - Lee Curtis HGF