PrairieGhost Art

If you are planning on creating a design featuring the netspeak acronym "OMFG", you might want to know about this.  A lawyer by the name of James Lindon has trademarked a common, everyday phrase and is apparently making the rounds through POD markets like Zazzle and Skreened demanding that products containing the acronym "OMFG" be removed.

Stop me if I'm wrong, but doesn't trademark only apply to brand names?  Can you really trademark a common, every day phrase like OMFG (or in another, similar situation, "caution") and then prohibit anyone else from using that word in any way if they profit from it?  If that's the case, then I shall immediately begin trademarking common, everyday words so that I can prohibit anyone else from using them in any way because they belong to me and onlly me!

On second thought, maybe I'll just trademark "James Lindon"...

The mere fact that an individual can get a trademark on something as generic as a commonly-used word or phrase (OMFG, caution, stealth, etc) is an abuse of the trademark system.  Trademarks are meant to protect a business's reputation and name, not give an unscrupulous individual the power to stomp on small business owners and designers.

Nevermind the fact that many of the products that were removed were around long before James Lindon obtained his trademark.  What is to stop unscrupulous individuals from stealing ideas, trademarking them, then going after the original creators of those concepts?

There are so many things wrong with what is going on now, and only a small part of it is the reluctance of the POD's to stand up for their shopkeepers.

So if you're reading this, James Lindon... Back off.  You and the guy who trademarked "Caution" can go hang out together somewhere and leave the little guys alone.