The McArthur Law Firm has announced that it has filed a letter of protest against Sony’s attempt to trademark “Let’s Play” despite the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) refusing the initial application. McArthur Law feels that USPTO’s reasons for turning down SCEA’s application were too weak and can be easily overcome. In a post on its website, the firm wrote:
We became concerned about Sony’s shameless attempt to monopolize a generic term used by gamers throughout the world when it was reported earlier this week that the USPTO had issued an Office Action assessing Sony’s application. The USPTO’s Office Action failed to even raise genericism as a possible issue with the trademark.
After analyzing the Office Action, it became clear to us that Sony will easily overcome the USPTO’s concerns and that the USPTO, apparently not gamers themselves, has no idea that “Let’s Play” is a common term in the video game industry.
In the Letter of Protest filed today by The McArthur Law Firm, we presented the USPTO with over fifty examples of how Let’s Play has become “generic” . A term is generic and cannot be trademarked when it identifies the products and services itself instead of the source of those goods or services.
Sony has six months to respond to USPTO’s initial refusal, but it remains to be seen if the company will take any action or not.
[Source: McArthur Law via Gamasutra]
