Looked it up. He does indeed have a trademark for āChange my mindā.
No doubt it has already been genericized. The court ruling anything other than that would be surprising. Pretty much anything that becomes hyper memed gets this treatment.
I looked it up as well, already has a Section 8 and 15 declaration and no clear limitation based on the prosecution history. Which is kind of crazy since āchange my mindā in a debate context and using trademark terminology is at least suggestive, but much more rightly descriptive (which should not be registrable without pre-establishing secondary meaning).
Even if he has a registration, using it within the debate itself and if the debate was not called āChange My Mindā means thereās no real chance of Crowder winning. Heās just doing #rightwingthings, using lawfare to try to hurt opponents when they canāt win with arguments and moral high ground.
Iām not a lawyer, but that seems pretty unenforceable from my limited experience with trademark law. Common phrases, especially used casually (as in, not in an advertisement/campaign slogan), canāt really be infringed as far as I know.
Now, if he had put it on a billboard or something, thatās a slightly different story.
Prove me wrong, lol
I am a lawyer, but not a trademark lawyer. Just knowledgeable enough to be dangerously wrong, I guess.
But trademark protection must be tied to a product, and donāt provide protection against a word or phrase being used at all.
And so the strength of a trademark description relies on where it lies on the spectrum between totally fanciful words invented specifically for the trademarked use (Xerox, Exxon, Pepsi), arbitrary words that are normal words but have nothing to do with the product (Apple computers, Monster energy drinks), suggestive words that have something to do with the product (Coppertone for suntan lotion, Airbnb for an online service for BnB listings), descriptive words (Quarter Pounder for a burger that is a quarter pound in weight), to fully generic words for products that canāt be limited to one producer/seller (bicycle, automobile, hamburger).
Common terms can be trademarked, but the scope of protection is necessarily much narrower. Apple can enforce its trademark in computers and electronics. Monster Energy Drink can enforce its trademark in beverages.
Crowderās āChange my mindā trademark seems pretty tough to enforce. Itās at best a descriptive mark, and descriptive marks are hard to enforce unless the mark is so distinctive in commerce (like McDonaldās Quarter Pounder) that a consumer might be confused about who is producing it. I donāt think any regular person on the street will assume that a CNN-produced town hall with James Talarico is sponsored or licensed or produced by Crowderās team, so thereās no risk of consumer confusion.
But like I said, Iām not a trademark lawyer so I wouldnāt put too much weight in what I say.
In the end I agree, it canāt be enforced, but if it helps:
Trademark protects source indicators, for specific goods and services, so a phrase isnāt simply trademarkable or not on its own, it depends on what it is relating to.
Thereās different levels of protectibility as well - but āgenericā is a higher bar. If something is just ādescriptiveā then itās really just describing the goods or services. Those canāt be trademarked unless there is āsecondary meaningā which is established consumer association with using that phrase for a good or service. Thereās also āsuggestiveā marks, which are less direct than descriptive, āarbitraryā marks which are words applied to unlike goods and services, and āfancifulā (edit: correction) marks which are totally made up words. All that goes in order of protectibility.
Basically, Crowder shouldnāt (IMHO) have gotten this mark for debate products/services, because itās descriptive to what debate is. Somehow he did without the USPTO fighting back. Maybe USPTO was overworked and it slipped by.
Ultimately, though, an infringement would only succeed if another party used it in a way that caused confusion over the source/endorsement. Crowder would have to show people saw them say āchange my mindā on CNN and thought Crowder was involved. If it was in the title of the show, a huge slim maybe. But in the full show, in a debate, with someone saying āchange my mind,ā itās absurd to think Crowder has a case.
For the last couple of decades, USPTO has been handing out patents and trademarks on anything that pays them. I had a business for years, based on a culinary technique thatās been around for 150 years, and somehow some guy got a patent on it. It would literally be like getting a patent on scrambled eggs, or the club sandwich, itās ridiculous.
Every now and then, the guy contacts me and demands $80K a month for a license, and I always tell him to go fuck himself. He always threatens to sue, but I already know of one case heās lost, and I know heās just bluffing. If he goes to court, heāll just be spending a bunch of money to lose the case, lose his patent, and pay my legal bills.
Would be very funny if this actually resulted in him losing the trademark because itās too generic
Thatās wild. Thatās like Paris Hilton trademarking āthatās hotā.
I mean, what even the fuck.
So many of our laws need to be overhauled, but our IP laws seem to be almost a joke.
Youāre not wrong, but the Trademark Office is not a law office, and probably has a much lower standard than a court of law.
It was in common usage before he trademarked it, so the trademark should never have been granted.
Just so you know, Iām not a litigious person
Proceeds to threaten litigation
The podcaster, popular in the MAGAverse, went further as he accused the network and its partners of using his phrase for political purposes.
āOnce you rip it off and use it for propaganda, I now have a problem, and I have to come for everything!ā
ā¦as opposed to being used forā¦ what exactly? What does Crowder think his little bs ādebatesā are?
āWhy are you making me do this to you?ā
Discworld Spoiler (Monstrous Regiment)
Maybe he means it in the Jackrum way. āUpon my oath I am not a shouty/swearing/violent man.ā And Cowder is just acknowledging heās not a person.
tl;dr Crowder is threatening to sue CNN, Jubilee and Talarico for using the phrase āChange My Mindā, which he argues is āour trademarked brand, logo and formatā.
I find it hard to believe that he owns or can own that trademark personally.
change my mind
Sadly, he does seem to have gotten it trademarked. That LLC owns a āMug Clubā which I presume is Crowderās.
How this was trademarked, I have no idea, but if itās used satirically (as in thrown back in his face) I donāt see how a lawsuit prevails - generally this is only merited if CNN started using it directly for a personality on their network or a show name, etc.
Thatās insane. Itās just a basic concept of debate. An extremely generic phrase. Itās like trademarking āhahaā. I suspect it will be tested more thoroughly in court than at the trademark office.
They should push to overturn it.
I donāt see how it prevails regardless. Itās generic when used for a debate, no reasonable consumer would assume it was a brand indicator at all, and even if they did no reasonable consumer would assume this debate was signed off on by him.
Seeing how itās a whole-ass meme format for years now and nobody has been worried about it until now, I doubt that will stand in court.
I better hurry up and trademark the. The. Thatās it. Its mine. You know what, im trademarking mine also. Mine is mine now.
To quote Starlord āthatās not a unique thing to sayā
He might still be sensitive about the subject since his wife changed her mind and got herself an āex-ā prefix.
Very snowflake-like behavior.
Magnificent
Crowder still has a career after his wife beating shenanigans?
Of course. You get a merit badge for wife beating in those circles.
Just padding his resume
My initial reaction was āStephen ā¦ Crowder? Do I know that name?ā
Maybe this is a bid to stay relevant, as much as it is anything else.
What a little bitch.
Crowder is a big pussy.
Change my mind.
There isnt a pussy out there that you couldnāt find someone to fuck. Big or small, hairy or waxed, clean or riddled with disease. Someone would fuck it.
Then thereās this guy. No one wants to fuck it.
Impossible! How can he be a pussy and a cockroach at the same time? Is he Schroedingerās cockroach? Wait a secondā¦ do cockroaches have pussies?
What a fucking snowflake.
Steven WHO?
The dipshit from the āchange my mindā meme
Heās the guy who invented holding a mug in a smug way.
Kermit enters the chatā¦
Wow, who knew that Steven Crowder came up with the phrase āchange my mindāā¦ TILā¦
āIm not the litigious typeā
Classic gaslight
Howās the divorce going Steven?
