Your Favorite Hashtag Might Secretly Be A Registered Trademark
Some companies are seeking legal protection for hashtags. Here’s why—most of the time—they don’t deserve it.
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1. We use #hashtags on social media to tag, link, organize, or search for content, from #blacklivesmatter to #selfie to #deflategate.
Star Trak / Via giphy.com
2. Companies use hashtags on their websites and sometimes offline, too.
“Go Blue” is a registered trademark for hats & tees. And also for urinals.
5. Some companies think a hashtag they use can also be a trademark they own. Thousands of them have applied to register hashtag trademarks with the US Trademark Office. I call these “tagmarks.”
6. But whether something is a trademark depends on whether consumers understand it as one. A trademark tells you who sells something or distinguishes a product from the competition, like COCA-COLA for soda or AMERICAN IDOL for a singing contest.
American Idol / Via giphy.com
7. Trademarks help reward companies’ investments and protect consumers. But some companies can be overzealous AF in seeking trademark protection.
Allie Brosh / Via Twitter: @TimberlakeLaw
8. When the attorneys at the Trademark Office first started reviewing tagmark applications, they weren’t sure what to do with them.
Via knowyourmeme.com
9. So they decided to pretend the hash symbol was invisible and didn’t affect how consumers perceive a mark. So far they’ve granted registration for over 200 tagmarks.
Fox / Via giphy.com
Step 1: Cut a hole in a box. Step 2: Put your hashtag in that box…
10. But a hash symbol does affect how you understand a word or phrase.
Coolcaesar at en.wikipedia / Via en.wikipedia.org
11. Panda Express and #pandaexpress are not the same thing in your mind.
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Instagram: @na / Via instagram.com
12. In fact, it can be hard for tagmarks to act like trademarks, for a few reasons.
Via pinterest.com
13. Some hashtags have thousands of authors who shape their meaning collectively.
14. A company might not actually be using the hashtag as a trademark, even if it thinks it is.
PNC / Via uspto.org
15. And you might not see a tagmark as telling you who makes a product or distinguishing one brand from others—you might just see it as an invitation to tag your own content a certain way.
KFC / Via business.blog.klout.com
16. If hashtags are being protected as trademarks, but they’re not functioning as trademarks, what do we do? I propose the USPTO stop registering them unless and until each owner can prove that consumers recognize its tagmarks as trademarks.
Via knowyourmeme.com
We call that “secondary meaning” in the biz.
17. Even when a tagmark is registered as a trademark, its owner probably won’t come after you for last week’s #tbt.
Club W / Via youtube.com
(#TBT® is actually a registered trademark for wine, though.)
18. Noncommercial use is protected by fair use doctrines, whether your post is naughty or nice.
19. And besides, a company that chooses a tagmark over a traditional trademark wants you to see it, share it, use it, and make it viral. Badly.
Walt Disney Co. / Via gif-database.tumblr.com
20. So it’s worth asking: should tagmarks be a thing?
NBC / Via jrebatterham.blogspot.com
This post was created by a user and has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone can post awesome lists and creations. Learn more or post your buzz!
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