Nintendo Seeks To Trademarks "It's On Like Donkey Kong" 183
eldavojohn writes "Nintendo has requested a trademark on the phrase 'It's on like Donkey Kong.' The phrase has been used in everything from rap to television in modern culture. From the article: 'The makers of the classic video-game franchise have filed a request with the US Patent and Trademark office to trademark the pop-culture phrase, "It's on like Donkey Kong." Nintendo claims that the catchphrase "is an old, popular Nintendo phrase that has a number of possible interpretations depending on how it's used."'"
Man... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Man... (Score:5, Funny)
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Haven't you ever played the first game? It's obvious they were burnt off by fire.
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You know, in all the DK games I've ever played, and cartoons I've watched, I never noticed if he had any genitalia. I've never looked for it, so it very well may be there, but if it's not... care to retract your statement?
Retract his statement? If he's telling the truth, he's already got "full retraction" where it counts, what more do you want?
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...an adult gorilla's erect penis size is about 4cm in length
From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org].
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Re:Man... (Score:5, Funny)
"...an adult gorilla's erect penis size is about 4cm in length"
From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org].
Who the hell goes around measuring that type of stuff?!
Insecure gorillas.
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That's SCIENCE! Bitches!
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Actually, gorillas (like most other primates) have relatively small genitalia. Humans are an exception - at least, some of them are.
Blame our big brains.
No, seriously. At birth we have pretty honkin' big noggins. A larger, more resilient birth canal is required. That will tend to select for more generous male genitalia, female orgasms being a factor in successful impregnation.
Science!
(Okay, I kinda made all that up - but it's a good hypothesis...)
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On one hand, that would have made sense, except that the male ostrich isn't all that well hung.
On the other hand, poor Koko can't compete with J.Lo in buttocks size. We share this trait with equines, and as a result, penises over a certain minimum length has been selected for in both species.
On the gripping hand, when our species started walking upright, we freed our hands for masturbation. The penis might be that big because our hands are.
Re:Man... (Score:4, Funny)
"This article is baller like Samus."
"Damn, that was cold. Cold like Ice Climbers."
"The name is Hare. Peppy Hare. I take it barrelled, not rolled."
Up next.... (Score:5, Insightful)
"I Nintendo'd that shit." -- Used to describe an act where you alienate people that previously liked you for a really, really stupid reason.
Re:Up next.... (Score:5, Interesting)
To be fair, it does include the name of a game that was copyrighted in 1981, and it was even contested and won against Universal City Studios because it was too close to King Kong.
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*Do* trademarks work that way? (Score:2, Interesting)
Indeed...
My understanding of copyright/patent/trademark laws is quite weak but I've always thought that you register trademarks in a limited scope. For example, if a software company trademarks the word "Explorer", some ship manufacturer could still also trademark "Explorer" because it is clear that the Explorer (tm) ships are different from the Explorer (tm) software.
How does that work when it comes to expressions like this one?
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As I understand it, Trademarks are divided into categories. When you register a trademark, you have to specify which category you're trademarking it in.
Trademark dilution (Score:3, Interesting)
Trademarks are divided into categories. When you register a trademark, you have to specify which category you're trademarking it in.
But once your trademark becomes sufficiently famous, you can enforce it against other categories [wikipedia.org] because they're assumed to be merchandising [youtube.com].
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How does that work when it comes to expressions like this one?
Clearly, very clearly, what it means is that, ahem, again, very clearly, that we, being Nintendo, can clearly do whatever it is that we want, and you, clearly, can not do pretty much anything at all with that phrase.
*sips coffee*
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I'm betting they want to start a marketing push using the phrase, and realized they don't own it, so they are trying to find some stupid people at the
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Well, I mean, really, that's dumb.
After all, Sega does what Nintendon't.
Re:Up next.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Synonym ... "I Oracled that shit"
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Will this pass muster? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Will this pass muster? (Score:5, Informative)
Donald Trump tried to patent "you're fired," so there's precedent for trying. He failed though (luckily) and I have to assume Nintendo will fail too. Also, I'd keep using it and not paying them royalties so it would really only affect print usage, and I doubt it's a common phrase in the Times.
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Donald Trump tried to patent "you're fired," so there's precedent for trying.
There's precedent for people jumping off of cliffs too.
Seems to be just about as meaningful too.
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I sort of wish he had succeeded, if only so I could turn in my old boss for infringement. :(
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There is a difference between patents and trademarks. Like copyright, you can trademark anything, and again like copyright, its up to the holder to defend it themselves. Trademarks are there to maintain brand integrity and recognition. Its OK, there is no controversy here. If a rapper wants to Donky Kong stuff, I don't see where this would be a trademark violation because they are in entirely different businesses, and there is no way to confuse Mr Rapper with Nintendo.
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I think you mean trademark?
Though patenting the process of firing someone would be much more interesting. It could really help unemployment rates, until the masses of incompetent employees drove all major business into the ground...
Re:Will this pass muster? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Will this pass muster? (Score:5, Informative)
On the 15 of August 1994, William R. Della Croce, Jr. filed for the trademark Linux, and then demanded royalties from Linux distributors.
In 1996, Torvalds and some affected organizations sued him to have the trademark assigned to Torvalds, and in 1997 the case was settled.
There is precedent for trademarking a name after it's use and using it to extort^h^h^h^h^h^h require licensing fees.
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Likelihood of confusion (Score:3, Interesting)
That's the bedrock of trademark law. Here's a classic example from my neck of the woods: A little organic fast-food place called "McDharma's" was sued by McDonald's. McDonald's successfully argued that visitors might be confused and think that because of the "Mc" appelation and the fact that the place served fast food, consumers would potentially be unsure as to whether it was associated with McDonald's or not. Furthermore, if McDharma's made boatloads of money by trading on this confusion, they would be ru
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I don't really think they can do that. I can say apple, Apple, and even Apple (TM) without opening myself up to a lawsuit. I would have a hard time seeing them enforcing this for regular Joes.
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You don't patent phrases. Trademarks have different rules. That said, I doubt this will be enforceable, so even if they did get it I imagine they would lose it pretty quickly.
I disagree... First, trademarks are assertable only as uses in commerce. If you say it to your buddy, it's irrelevant. If Microsoft uses it in an advertisement for a new XBox game, that's enforceable.
Second, prior art in trademarks is irrelevant, if they're not prior usage by another manufacturer. When you told your buddy "it's on like Donkey Kong" last year, you were referring to Nintendo's Donkey Kong. That's actually a third-party use of a mark that accrues to the benefit of Nintendo, since that's what
Trademark is different than patent (Score:2)
I mean, can they really claim patent for a phrase that has millions of instances of prior use? IANAL, but surely they cant then start claiming royalties from the use of this phrase in current and future media? that would be like patenting the phrase 'how you doin'
Prior use is entirely irrelevant in trademark (except for prior concurrent use by another manufacturer). Basically, unlike patents or copyrights, the question isn't "has someone used this phrase before?" Rather, it's "has someone used this phrase to refer to a non-Nintendo property?" In other words, when someone says this, do you think of Nintendo, or do you think of Sega, Apple, General Motors, Bob's Discount House of Kong, etc.?
Suffice to say, no. So use prior to the trademark registration is irrelevan
Nintendo (Score:5, Insightful)
I call shenanigans.
TFA says they're using it now to promote the new donkey kong country, but it seems like they're taking a phrase that the public created that is in the public domain and are trying to claim it as theirs.
King Kong (Score:2)
This is a pretty lame move to steal a public domain phrase created by the public, to increase some valuation of "Donkey Kong" that Nintendo named after King Kong, a media property to which Nintendo has never had any legitimate claim.
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It's not that unusual.
The Star Destroyer crashed in the "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" trailer was a fan art 3D model a fan had created and then released online. The model was published under the explicit requirement that it was only to be used for non-commercial purposes.
Of course that was ignored, just like it was ignored when another model by the same fan was used for the second Family Guy Star Wars special.
In both cases it was easy to identify, since the surface detailing included patterns which diff
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I don't think they're "stealing" it. You would still be able to use it as much as you wanted, in most contexts, except to sell a competing video game.
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They already own "Donkey Kong". Using "It's On Like Donkey Kong" to sell a competing video game would already be prevented by the "Donkey Kong" trademark. This move is at best redundant, in an overreaching way. Which leads me to expect that they'd overreach on what they attempted to protect. I expect they'd try to extort money or just send baseless Cease & Desist letters to people using the phrase who aren't selling a competing video game.
Re:Nintendo (Score:5, Interesting)
Did Nintendo themselves ever actually use the phrase? I thought it was just a pop culture reference kinda thing, never a part of the actual franchise. >_>
I call shenanigans.
TFA says they're using it now to promote the new donkey kong country, but it seems like they're taking a phrase that the public created that is in the public domain and are trying to claim it as theirs.
Of course, it could also be as simple as someone in marketing deciding to use the phrase in advertisements (as a pop culture reference and nothing more), and the legal team, entirely by force of habit, attempting to trademark every last letter on the advertisement copy on a just-in-case-it-works basis.
I'll grant that Nintendo's tried pulling trademark/copyright nonsense like this before (and were almost victims of it in the famous Universal case regarding Donkey Kong itself), but something tells me this was an overzealous lawyer deluging the trademark office with the standard-issue forest of paperwork when a new game is released, expecting the trademark office to do the fact-checking for him. Or failing that, to get a few bonus trademarks and maybe another raise if they're not paying attention.
I say give it time to see how it pans out before we go... well, apeshit, appropriately.
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Except there is a direct quote from Nintendo in TFA:
"In addition to Nintendo's use, it has been used in popular music, television and film over the years, pointing to Donkey Kong's status as an enduring pop-culture icon and video game superstar," they said Wednesday in a written release.
They clearly thought about this before doing (enough to put out a release to the media) as well as acknowledged it's already a common phrase in pop culture...
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You may be correct insofar as registering a trademark, but to defend it in court against infringers is different. In court, Nintendo would have to show that it has zealously defended its trademark, and if the phrase is well-established in the wild then that test is likely to fail.
Not if your plan is to simply bully the other parties into running out of cash defending a case. How many of those T-Shirt vendors using that phrase are going to have the funds ready and waiting to fight this in court? Should they argue and win this case? Yup.
In Law, the winner is the guy with most money. - Denny Crane
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Given the current dearth of Kong... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's gone like Donkey Kong.
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You mean SNES right? DK64 is a tedious collecting fest plagued with low framerates, popup at insanely close distances, and all around shittyness. I'm usually pretty forgiving about classic games, but DK64 is abominable. The Banjo games, Mario 64, Rayman 2, Conker, all outclass DK64 by miles. Adventure on the Atari 2600 is a far more playable game. The only possible reason for playing DK64 today is that you were a poor impressionable child back then, who got DK64 solely because of the license, and were
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And people will keep buying it because they perfected the formula from the onset. As much crap as everyone (including me) gives Nintendo, they've pretty much proven they have the market cornered on consistently being able to produce top notch platformers. I know many people who buy all of Nintendo's consoles JUST to play the first party platformers. Their third party support is bleak, so selling consoles based on first party titles must say something.
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Nintendo used to have Rare developing games, both with Nintendo characters (Donkey Kong Country 1-3, DK64, Star Fox Adventures) and in general for their system (Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark, etc...).
Too bad Rare's a Microsoft property now.
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Their first-party franchises aren't as bulletproof as they like to think.
They screwed up Zelda and Metroid, so I'm not holding my breath on DKC.
Re:Given the current dearth of Kong... (Score:4, Funny)
"In the barrio like Mario"?
"Goin' to Fiji like Louigi"?
What do they gain? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't you normally trademark something so that other people can't impersonate your work to give it a bad rep or something?
What does Nintendo have to gain by trademarking this phrase?
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$$$
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How?
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1. Patent phrase "It's on like Donkey Kong"
2. ???
3. Profit
You're asking about Step #2. You must be new here...
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Patent != Trademark
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Maybe the are:
-about to start a PR campaign and want to make sure the main catchphrase can be owned
-coming out with a new DK game
I don't know. Most times I see things like this and think the company lawyers are just finding ways to rack up hours.
I feel an unfortunate engrish incident coming on.. (Score:5, Funny)
Congratulations, your request for trademark of the phrase "It's on rike Donkey Kong" has been approved.
Sincerely,
The Trademark Office
Re:I feel an unfortunate engrish incident coming o (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Nintendo, Congratulations, your request for trademark of the phrase "It's on rike Donkey Kong" has been approved. Sincerely, The Trademark Office
I find your comment to be lacist.
Re:I feel an unfortunate engrish incident coming o (Score:5, Funny)
As in weally wacist.
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Don't be a plick.
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As in weally wacist.
Just what we need, someone spreading FUD on a /. discussion.
Identifying a Product (Score:5, Insightful)
If "On like Donkey Kong" was a phrase used to market a game that consumers though was the Nintendo property, there might be a case here. That is the only test that is used to determine whether a phrase or symbol infringes a trademark.
Corporations who frivolously try to grab intellectual "property" like this should have to pay the government fees for using up taxpayer funded resources.
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If "On like Donkey Kong" was a phrase used to market a game that consumers though was the Nintendo property, there might be a case here. That is the only test that is used to determine whether a phrase or symbol infringes a trademark.
Corporations who frivolously try to grab intellectual "property" like this should have to pay the government fees for using up taxpayer funded resources.
It is;
From TFA, it's the phrase they're using to promote the newest incarnation of Donkey Kong Country for the Wii, which releases 11/21.
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Yeah, but that is a Nintendo game. He meant a non-Nintendo game using the phrase, of course.
Trademarks are not usually valid unless they are in a competing industry (which is how Apple computer successfully fought the Apple Records lawsuit, before they turned around and started threatening every unrelated industry they could find regarding their own trademarks).
Next up (Score:5, Funny)
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Barbara Streisand files for trademark over the use of "Streisand Effect"
I'm pretty sure, if she ever tried that, that Robert Smith and Syndey Poitier would beat her in a match of mecha-ro-sham-bo
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Except, they're not trying to censor the phrase "It's on like Donkey Kong". In fact, I'm pretty sure they'll be propagating as far and wide as possible when they release Donkey Kong Country later this month.
You know what th (Score:3, Funny)
This sounds like the real deal Holyfield...
Doesn't rhyme: Perhaps Donkey Con? (Score:2)
Can we fix the rhyme and avoid the happy-birthday-to-you-copyright-or-trademark-fee?
It's on like Donkey Con.
Or Donkey Cohn, depending or which way you say it.
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Note to self: refresh page before posting.
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Don't you mean,
Kkkkoooonnnngggg!!!
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It's On Like Donkey Kong. (Score:3, Funny)
Devastation all around (Score:2)
A day late (Score:2)
Even if they can trademark it, it's long since lost its novelty and value. A day late and a dollar short, so to speak.
Actually let's give them that phrase instead, then everyone wins.
Cheap Advertising? (Score:2, Insightful)
How much does it cost to try to file for a trademark like this?
How much free advertising is Nintendo getting for their upcoming DK sequel from various news outlets for *trying* to?
Does anyone think Nintendo even *cares* if they get the trademark or not?
Unrelated, mostly (Score:3, Funny)
I'm gonna bonk her like Conker!
Isn't the shame enough? (Score:2)
I don't think that means what you think it means. (Score:2)
"It's on like a plumber avoiding barrels to defeat a Gorilla and save a Princess!"
Also: The phrase "It's on" is only exciting if your talking to your partner about a condom.
Spot the typo (Score:2)
samzenpus wrote the headline 'Nintendo Seeks To Trademarks "It's On Like Donkey Kong" ', adding some necessary qualification, and a verb misagreement.
Wow, what a cheap way to get publicity (Score:2)
Donkey Kong is an animal (Score:2)
Pacman is my friend, Donkey Kong is an animal
-- Automan
Am I the only one... (Score:2)
... who can't claim to have heard this phrase before? Am I really the only person on Slashdot who is out of touch with "pop culture" insofar as Nintendo games are part of pop culture?
I'm 24, it's not like I'm either too old to be in touch with pop culture, or too young to have played any Donkey Kong games when they were big.
Idiotic. (Score:2)
I've been a fan of Nintendo for over 20 years. OVER. This kind of corporate idiocy just proves AGAIN why we need to eliminate all corporations. HORRIBLE.