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back to article German firm fails to trademark !

A German clothing manufacturer has failed in its bid to register ! as a trade mark, the Telegraph reports. Joop! pitched two versions of the excitable punctuation mark for consideration - one on its own and another with an ! "inside a rectangular frame". The Court of First Instance in Luxembourg backed a ruling by the Office …

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  1. The Indomitable Gall

    Cue...

    Cue thousands of spreadshirt, zazzle, shirtcity etc etc users making Ts with big exclamation marks to thoroughly blast the "distinctive character" thing out of the water.

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  2. Jonathan 17

    In other news....

    Yahoo! exclaimed! how! relieved! they! were!

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  3. Martin 19
    Coat

    If! They! Had! Succeeded!,

    Where! Would! That! Leave! The! Register's! Yahoo! Related! Headlines!?

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Absolute class...

    ...on tacking a bang on the end of the 'be the first to post a comment' link. Fantastic!

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  5. Richard 81

    Then

    I shall enjoy my freedom to overuse the exclamation mark without impunity.

    Like so.

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Take that Joop!

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  6. disgruntled yank

    slamming

    There was an American years ago who used to charter "Beatles tours" of Liverpool. I forget his name, but he felt that he to himself justice he needed an exclamation point officially added to his name. So Mr. X filed papers with the court and thereafter was Mr. X!.

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  7. Lockwood
    Joke

    Awesome!™

    Amazing!™

    We can still use this wonderful piece of punctuation in our day to day writings!™

    Imagine the poor mathemticians writing factorials without this symbol!™ 3!™ is equal to 6.

    Programming would be a pain. if (x!™=y) { ... }

    How did they ever think they'd be able to do this?!™

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  8. Ozwadi Ogolugi

    Complete

    uber twats!!

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Badgers

    Cheeky! Bastards!

    For! Obvious! Reasons! (No! Badgers! Involved!)

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    OK, I just noticed...

    ...that ALL of the 'be first to post...' things have a ! at the end. I guess it didn't sink in before! I fail at both humor and perceptiveness - but it DOES suggest that the !'s power is somewhat diluted, doesn't it?!

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  11. Tim Croydon

    What! have! Yahoo! got! to! do! with! it!?

    Different class of goods. No conflict there.

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  12. Lockwood
    Alert

    What didn't I think of that?!™

    @AC: Nice one!™

    I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that myself!™

    Yahoo!™ Headlines!™ To!™ Become!™ Longer!™ And!™ More!™ Common!™

    The other funny thing will be seeing kids on gaming forums when they get upset:

    OMG!™ NO FAIR U CHEATED!™!™!™!™!™1111!™!™1111oneoneone

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  13. peter 45

    Different class= no conflict

    Try telling those who have have got bone letters from bone Lawyers insructed by bone manufacturers who seem to think that a trademark gives them absolute and unique rights to that name. Remember Monster Cables? McDonalds?

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  14. Tanuki
    Stop

    "______ " ® 1

    No doubt there's some agitprop-delusionist or mime out there who is this minute pondering whether to seek a trademark on " " [white-space].

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  15. James O'Brien
    Pint

    @Lockwood

    "The other funny thing will be seeing kids on gaming forums when they get upset:

    OMG!™ NO FAIR U CHEATED!™!™!™!™!™1111!™!™1111oneoneone"

    ROFL cheers!™

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  16. nowster

    Victor Hugo's publisher got there first

    Manufacturer: "!" ?

    Court: ¬

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  17. Tim Roberts 1
    Paris Hilton

    What !!!!!!

    It defies logic that anyone would even think of trademarking/copyrighting/effing whatevering a symbol that has been used and continues to be used in everyday written English.

    What a pack of MORONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    maybe I should 'capitalise" on the use of capitals.......

    Paris cos she likes the large (capital) versions! - from what I've heard!

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