[Corpora-List] phrase as trademark

[Geoffrey Sampson]

I have just come across what strikes me as one of the oddest
language-related news items I have seen for a long time, tucked away at the
back of the business section of my daily paper.  Apparently the new film
"The King's Speech" had a sentence within the credits "no animals were hurt
in the making of this film" (I haven't seen the film, so I don't know how
this is relevant to a story about George VI's stammer); and the American
Humane Society forced them to remove it, because they have registered the
words "no animals were hurt" as a trademark which cannot be used without
their permission (within the USA, I presume; but the film-makers will have
wanted to include the USA in their distribution).  What next?  Is it going
to happen one day that if I ask my wife or daughter "How are you feeling
this morning?" some healthcare company is going to have me for misuse of a
trademark??  (OK, I realize that word-of-mouth as opposed to writing
probably wouldn't fall within trademark law, but nevertheless ...)

Geoffrey Sampson


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