back to article Fark attempts to trademark NSFW

Fark.com has filed an application to trademark "Not Safe For Work", offering the delicious possibility of mass litigation against roughly half of net content providers including, of course, El Reg (link NSFW, natch). The audacious move was spotted by Trademork, which not unreasonably points out that it "might be a little …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous John

    I hope the court

    tells then to fark off.

  2. Adam
    Coat

    Double negative

    "which not unreasonably points out"

    That'd be "reasonably points out" then.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    I wonder?

    I wonder what the odds are of getting a link submission of this green lit on fark?

  4. jai
    Unhappy

    isn't there a precident for this?

    didn't despair.com already successfully trademark the unhappy smiley :-( ?

  5. Chris Simmons
    IT Angle

    Drew...

    ...was probably farked again after another farking Fark party and thought it would make a farking good joke; farker.

    /am registered with Fark

    //slashies

    ///farking stupid idea

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    What the...

    ...Fark were they thinking?

  7. Chika

    Yay! Time for puns!

    They must be farking mad!

  8. Kim Hancock
    Happy

    it "might be a little difficult to protect and enforce this mark"

    ...is putting it mildly! The endless litigation alone would sink them financially, just ask uncle Darl over at SCO.

  9. Bruce

    Fark.

    /This.

  10. Colin Jackson
    Pirate

    Well...

    They might just thinks it's a laugh to own it, and have no intention of enforcing it. I'd do it for kicks, if it were me.

  11. Tom

    Barclays

    Have trademarked "Hole in the wall".

    wtf?

  12. Dan Collett
    Coat

    All...

    your NSFW are belong to fark!

    (no i cant think of anything more original that this!)

    They really were farked from the offset. Fark the farking farkers, the farking farkers, farked!

  13. Richard Tobin

    Cheaper than a press release?

    How much does it cost to file a trademark claim? It certainly seems to be an easy way of getting press coverage.

  14. Graham Dawson Silver badge

    @Adam

    It's called understatement. You may consider it's use in conversation at some point.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    It's not clever nor funny...

    I can say fark. Fark fark fark fark fark.

    Isn't that (c) Ben Elton?

  16. Garry Mills

    To reuse the punchline...

    They weren't farkers, these farkers were acronym's...

  17. Chris Griffin
    Joke

    are you sure this isnt a joke?

    This strikes me as an attempt at pseudo-political irony...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Ahem...

    I'm trademarking WTF, so cough up now or I'll sue your ass !

  19. The Other Steve

    WTF

    Is a 'fark' when it's at home ? I'm far to busy to google it.

  20. Andy McKnight

    Fark

    /streetlight

  21. Haku

    what the fark?

    Surely the owner of nsfw.com would have something to say about this ?

  22. Morely Dotes

    I can't stand it any more

    /wrists

  23. Brian Milner

    This reminds me

    of the Games company that tried to trademark the word 'Nazi'.

    They didn't succeed.

  24. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Down

    @Tom

    > Barclays Have trademarked "Hole in the wall".

    Next time I go into the Hole in the Wall pub in Great Southsea Street, Portsmouth, I'll have to remember to point this out to the Landlord!

  25. Paul
    Paris Hilton

    Thats Hot!

    Paris Hilton Angle!

    /coat

  26. Bruce
    Coat

    File this in the

    Far Queue :)

  27. Graham Lockley

    Why ?

    Why would they want to trademark New South F*cking Wales ?

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    untwist those knickers, ladies...

    looking VERY much like a bizarre joke now. Naturally, complete with some rather amusing NSFW language.

    http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDBlog=15

  29. Dave Bell
    Stop

    Trademarks are weird.

    I've seen some strange trademark claims come out of the USA. But the important thing to remember is that they can be very specific, which is how Orange was able to trademark a colour.

    And I remember the game company story. It was a set of fold-up cardboard tokens, intended to represent the characters, for a game based on the first Indiana Jones move. So the word "Nazi" was a part of the whole, including trademarked character design.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NWS

    I've been on many forums where Not Work Safe is used instead. Perhaps they can trademark it and sit there wondering when everyone just uses something else instead.

  31. Adam Foxton

    @Tom

    Barclays bank (in Enfield) had the first ATM machines. Which is where the name "Hole In The Wall" came from, if memory serves.

    So I'd imagine they did it a while ago. And they've every right to!

  32. Steve B

    Weren't the "hole in the wall" gang a bunch of robbing bandits?

    Whoops: I understand it now!

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    "not unreasonably"

    @Adam, Graham Dawson

    The correct term is "litotes"

    "ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g. I shan’t be sorry for I shall be glad)."

    [from http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/litotes?view=uk]

    It's a bit different from the classic double negative. Which incidentally is, and always has been, proper natural English, despite what a handful of 18th century logicians thought say about it. And there ain't nobody who can tell me nothing different.

    Eponymous Blowhard.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Circular linking.....

    One of the "Read more" links on the Trademork.com article is the El Reg article, which serves no other purpose than to link to the Trademork article......

    Circular logic!! NSFS (Not Safe for Sanity)

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