"Nigga" untrademarkable?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 3/15/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> There's an article in the Washington Post about comedian Damon Wayans
> trying to trademark the word "Nigga" for a hiphop clothing line:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031401960.html
>
> USPTO has in the past rejected any variant of the N-word as derogatory
> and therefore unsuitable for a trademark. One scholar is quoted as
> saying an exception should be made for "Nigga":
>
> -----
> Wayans, whose application was submitted early last year, could argue
> that the word he hopes to trademark, "Nigga," is different, says Todd
> Boyd, a professor of critical studies at the University of Southern
> California and author of the book "The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of
> Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop."
> "I don't think it's the same thing," Boyd says. "Hip-hop has redefined
> the word. It can mean a number of things. It can be a term of
> admiration. It can be a term of recognition."
> -----

A side note: This is the only place in the Post article where "Nigga"
is actually mentioned, and it occurs nine paragraphs in. (In the
second paragraph the word is slyly referred to as "a trademark that
rapper Jay-Z famously rhymed with 'Jigga.'") The N-word with its usual
spelling is never appears, though "the N-word" appears four times
(ambiguously referring to either the "-er" or "-a" spelling).


--Ben Zimmer

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