Trademarks: Protection or Weapon? 🤔

Let’s talk trademarks. I’m not a lawyer—just a retired police lieutenant who went viral for exposing corruption—turned small business owner. I’m one of millions of small business owners out here trying to make a living, and I refuse to stay quiet about this madness. Trademarks were designed to protect creators and businesses. They were supposed to keep copycats from stealing your hard work. But somewhere along the way, things went off the rails. Now, trademarks are being weaponized, and it’s hurting the very people they were meant to help. 😡

What is a Trademark? 🧐

According to the USPTO, a trademark is any word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination of these that identifies your goods or services. It’s how customers recognize you and distinguish you from your competitors. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies your goods or services and distinguishes them from others. It tells customers, “This is mine, not theirs.” Think about Coca Cola, pro sports, college. teams, Disney, or even Taylor Swift. Those trademarks make sense—they’re unique identifiers for globally recognized brands.

Trademarks:

• Identify the source of your goods or services.

• Provide legal protection for your brand.

• Help prevent fraud and counterfeiting.

But here’s the catch: owning a trademark doesn’t mean you own a word or phrase in every context. Your rights are limited to how that word or phrase is used with your specific goods or services. For example, if you trademark a logo for your handmade jewelry business, you can’t stop someone from using a similar logo for a bakery.

Sounds reasonable so far, right? Well, buckle up. Here’s where things go sideways. 🤯

The Process of Filing

To file a trademark, you submit an application to the USPTO, describing what you want to protect and how you’ll use it. They review it to ensure it doesn’t overlap with an existing trademark. If approved, you have exclusive rights to use that mark in your industry. The idea is to prevent confusion in the marketplace. Simple, right?

Except people are abusing this process to trademark common words and phrases—things everyone uses! They file frivolous trademarks to knock out their competition by sending cease-and-desist letters or filing claims with platforms like Etsy. It’s like hijacking the English language, one word at a time. 🤬

The Absurdity of Frivolous Trademarks

Let me hit you with some examples. Here’s a tiny fraction of the words and phrases that have been trademarked or are under trademark attack:

• Boy Mom

• Cozy

• Celebrate

• Merry Christmas

• Elf

• Sisters

• The Moms Club

• Woohoo

• What

• Lucky

• Peace Out

• Super

• Virgin

• Winter

• True Story

• Heathen

• Gulf of America

• Did you try icing it?

• ABC

• Adolescents

• Algebra

• Antisocial Club

• Black

• Brown

• Bruh

• Daddy Bear

• Darkness

• Duh

• Excellence

• Faithful

• Foodie

• FYI

• Girl Dad

• Go

• Groomsman

• Happy Birthday

• Heavy

• Hey Girl

• Humans

• Husbands

• I Am

• IDK

• I’m on Vacation

• IVF Momma

• Jaded

• Jesus

• Job

• Lead

• Level

• Loner

• Magic

• Me

• Meeting

• Meow

• Monday

• Mother

• Mrs. Claus

• Oh My

• Old School

• Parade

• Poetry

• Pony

• Pop

• Preach

• Purple

• Redhead

• Sorry

• Taken

• Thanks

• They

• Touch

• Unemployed

• Unless

• Vacation

• Valedictorian

• Waiting

• Weirdo

• Welcome

• Work

• Year

• Yes

• Yourself

• Yucky

• All Zodiac Signs

• Moon Water

• Slay

It’s not just small businesses getting crushed—nonprofits are being targeted too. Imagine charities fighting trademark claims over phrases like “True Story” or “Heathen.” It’s disgusting. 🤦‍♀️

Apparel: The Hardest Hit

The apparel industry is getting obliterated. For decades, people have made and sold clothing with common sayings. It’s creative, fun, and part of the culture. But now? Someone trademarks “Girl Dad,” and suddenly everyone selling shirts with that phrase is hit with cease-and-desist letters. This isn’t about protecting creativity; it’s about greed and eliminating competition; ramping up around each holiday. 😤

The USPTO needs to wake up. These approvals are insane and blatantly unfair. They’re ruining businesses, stifling creativity, and turning trademarks into a weapon. Shame on you, USPTO. 👎

How to Fight Back ✊

If you’re as fired up as I am, here’s what you can do:

1. Educate Yourself: Learn about trademarks and how they work. The more you know, the better equipped you’ll be to fight back.

2. Join Forces: Groups like Trademark Watch Dawgs – Stop Frivolous Trademarks on Facebook are mobilizing to combat this nonsense. There’s strength in numbers. 💪 https://www.facebook.com/groups/461932877541687

3. Speak Out: Write blogs, share posts, and call out this BS. Use your voice to spread awareness.

4. Challenge Frivolous Trademarks: File a Letter of Protest with the USPTO. It’s a formal way to flag problematic trademark applications. You don’t need a lawyer to do this—guides online can walk you through the process. 📝

5. Support Small Businesses: Shop local and stand by the businesses under attack. 🛍️

6. Contact Lawmakers: Demand reform. The trademark system needs an overhaul to prevent abuse. 📢

Final Thoughts

This isn’t just about trademarks—it’s about censorship, control, and silencing creativity. Trademarks were supposed to protect us, not be used as a weapon against us.

Well, not this girl. I’m a retired cop who wrote a scathing resignation letter that went viral because I couldn’t stay silent about corruption. And I won’t stay silent now. If it’s wrong and it hurts people, I’m going to call it out. Loudly. 🚨

Let’s take back our words, our creativity, and our businesses. Enough is enough. ✊