[Corpora-List] phrase as trademark

[Alberto Simões]

On 09/02/2011 12:10, Geoffrey Sampson wrote:
> 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 ...)

Seems a problem related to software patents and the stupid patents on 
double-click and similar... :)

But it is worrying. Thanks for sharing.

>
> Geoffrey Sampson
>
>
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-- 
Alberto Simões

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