I thought stuff like “Explain Like I’m Five” and “AMA” was proprietary to the community, or at least the Reddit community, not Reddit as a company.
I checked and I found at least those subreddit forum names were registered as trademarks.
- TODAY I LEARNED (TIL)
- SHOWERTHOUGHTS
- EXPLAIN LIKE I’M FIVE
- NOSLEEP
- AM I THE ASSHOLE?
- IAMA
- RPAN (actual subreddit name is R/PAN but they messed up the word mark for the registration I think.)
- ASK REDDIT (makes sense since this includes Reddit’s name.)
- NATURE IS FUCKING LIT (I thought you couldn’t register word marks with swearing but I guess I’m wrong. Must be only for offensive terms then…)
- ASK ME ANYTHING (yes somehow this “generic term” is a trademark now…")
- AMA
- ELI5
Also they have some trademark registration applications for WALLSTREETBETS that have not been finalized yet.
Oh yea, I remember that site. You guys still getting emotional over it? Give it a clean break. The shit’s poison. I know I shouldn’t talk about an ex because people often get back together, but you can do it.
This is in a community specifically on the subject of Reddit.
Lol, my bad. I should have looked at that. No wonder there’s no humor on what I said.
Well, you can block this community now. It’s the reason why [email protected] and others exist, to offload posts on annoyingly frequently discussed topics from general communities like [email protected].
Good idea, thanks man
I getcha.
Gotta say - regardless of which community we’re on, this informative post raises valid and interesting questions about important laws in the United States.
IANAL can anyone ELI5 do they have to try and defend these trademarks? And how would that look like, going after Lemmy communities for using TIL, etc?
Could simply be a case of protecting their largest assets incase someone big really did try to replace reddit.
my understanding (I’m just a tax guy, my brother’s the IP guy) is they have to defend the trademark or they lose it to genericism and saran wrap [edit fuck it’s cellophane]. I could be wrong though.
Wouldn’t these terms being commonly used there and other places like quora, X/twitter, lemmy, etc show that they are already common terms that aren’t viable as brand identifiers of Reddit itself? Which is what trademarks are for. To reduce brand confusion and ensure people can identify a product, good and/or service and know it’s from a source they associate it with.
E.g. Coca Cola is a good example of what you think of when you see the red can, the swirl, and the font with the lettering.
You see it and you know what you’re getting quality wise, etc.
Trademarks are just for words. Trade dress is what you’re talking about, and it’s cognizance comes from the copyright laws.
Want a hoot? Go search for coke: https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-results It’s pretty fun.
Most aren’t for soda, since you aren’t going to confuse slag with a drink.
yeah, it’s why they shouldn’t have been granted as trademarks, but what do I know I’m not an IP guy.
IANAL
IANAL is a registered trademark of Reddit and Advance Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
I remember when r/natureisfuckinglit was created, it’s relatively new sub, there was a cool photo on r/earthporn, some dude commented “nature is fucking lit”, someone else commented there should be a sub for this and the next person created the sub
That dude signed a contract, said anything he writes belongs to Reddit in all mediums and in perpetuity.
I mean that would hardly hold up to a challenge fir inadequate consideration. The value of all intellectual property in perpetuity is easily worth far more than access to the reddit website.
Nah, you get to use the website. Access to a computer system in exchange for IP created with it is a pretty open and shut case. The value doesn’t have to be equal, it just can’t be unconscionable. Buyer beware.
Apparently there was a trademark problem with WALLSTREETBETS at one point. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/reddit-sued-wallstreetbets-trademark-settlement-1235327626
Can’t you just put /My website name after ?
Where does one mail a cease and desist for a non-centralized network?
I assume you’d go to the owner of the instance that hosts that particular community.
Torrents and Federated sites: they can’t give us all a speeding ticket if we’re all speeding
To yourself.
I don’t even think most of these would hold up in court unless they add “r/” in front of them. Reddit reserves the non-exclusive right to use user content however they want, and I don’t think this includes making user-submitted phrases their trademarks. I haven’t read the ToS though so another clause might reserve this right too. There might be a claim to words like “subreddit”, “r/” and “RPAN” and derivatives because they are based off the “Reddit” trademark.
I’m sure the fine upstanding folks working so earnestly as corporate lawyers will think of something. :D
I think they’d have a hard time defending some but not all of those. I’m sure many of the Redditors heavily involved in those subs, including the mods, have no idea, though!
Sounds like a lawsuit that should definitely happen!
Wasn’t ELI5 a line from the Office?
Yup. That episode aired December 2008. r/explainlikeim5 was created in 2012. Can’t tell when r/eli5 was created, as it’s now private.
Eli5 went private?!
- RPAN (actual subreddit name is R/PAN but they messed up the word mark for the registration I think.)
They didn’t mess up, it was called RPAN from the start. And that’s something Reddit launched, so it makes sense they’d trademark it.
Wait.
The applications for “NOSLEEP” and “R/NOSLEEP” were filed by Reddit Inc in… August 3, 2018?
And “THE NO SLEEP PODCAST” by Creative Reason Media (the actual publishers of the podcast) was filed in August 5, 2016, but… got dismissed or abandoned?
…What?
Imagine the balls it takes to take user-created forum names and register them as trademarks.
Imagine the balls
Small, arrogant pig’s balls
Some truly goofy goobers
“You made this?”
“I made this.”
AM I THE ASSHOLE?
Yes.
One more reason I’m done with Reddit.
