Patent Office Refuses Porn Site Trademark Due To 'Obscenity'
Lawyers for Kink.com called the rejection is "unconstitutional"
By: David Sullivan
Posted: 06/11/2007
SAN FRANCISCO -
Kink.com owner Peter Acworth is fighting the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office to trademark his website
fuckingmachines.com. Acworth's company Cybernet [now
Kink.com] originally applied for the trademark two years ago,
but was denied on the basis of a statute dating back to
1905.
"Registration is refused because the proposed mark consists
of or comprises immoral or scandalous matter," attorney
Michael Engel wrote in his review of the case. "The term
'fucking' is an offensive and vulgar reference to the act of
sex.[...] A mark that is deemed scandalous ... is not
registrable."
Acworth's attorney Marc Randazza filed an appeal June 5,
which will now lead to a hearing before the Trademark Trial
and Appeal Board.
"The trademark office has gone off the deep end with 2(a)
rejections," Randazza told the Orlando Weekly, in
reference to Section 2(a), 15 USC §1052(a), which forbids
trademarks with "immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter."
Randazza said the rejection is unconstitutional and is
fighting the federal government for the right to trademark
any word a person pleases.
In addition to www.fuckingmachines.com, Kink.com operates 10
different fetish websites and employs 70 people in its
Mission District headquarters.
Randazza and Cybernet appealed the trademark office's ruling
in August, asking the government to reconsider.
"The Applicant respectfully challenges this characterization
of the word 'fucking' and its allegedly 'offensive and
vulgar' root: 'fuck,'" Randazza wrote. "[T]his much maligned
four-letter word has no intrinsic meaning. Fuck [can] play a
role as a figurative term, for example, 'to fuck' can also
mean 'to deceive.' It is a word of force that can assist us
in our expressions of joy when used as an infix, as in
'abso-fucking-lutely'. 'Fuck' helps us express rage when we
scream 'fuck you' at a football referee, or at a motorist who
has just cut us off in traffic. 'Fuck' can help us express
pain, as it is quite frequently the first thing out of most
men's mouths when they strike their thumb (accidentally) with
a hammer. 'Fuck' is a vehicle for our disappointment, when we
see that our report card is not as good as we had hoped, or
when our significant other is late for dinner, or leaves us
altogether. 'Fuck' is an old friend, who can always make us
laugh."
Randazza's F-word soliloquy failed to move the court - but
he remains steadfast in his argument.
"If I didn't use 'fuck' liberally," Randazza told the
Orlando Weekly, "I'd be conceding the fucking
argument."
