EFF Moves To Nix Trademark On "Gaymer"

netbuzz writes "Spurred by the mark holder's cease and desist letter to Reddit's subreddit r/gaymer, the Electronic Frontier Foundation today officially petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind its grant of a trademark registration on the word "gaymer". 'This registration should never have been granted,' said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. 'Gaymer is a common term that refers to members of this vibrant gaming community, and we are happy to help them fight back and make sure the term goes back to the public domain where it belongs.'"

Gaymer?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought everyone spellt it Gamer!?!?

Re:Really!?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would assume they're the people EA/Bioware are shoving on Makeb.

I mean seriously, if I was gay, and one of my fellow colleagues referred to us as that, I would just like DIE.

Lingo faux paux are just as bad as fashion faux paux after all! Sometimes even worse!

Re:It's official!!

[Anonymous Coward]

And you, sir are a bigot.

Re:Really!?

[Xenx]

Why does any group of people identify themselves as part of said group? They want to. In this case, it doesn't sound like a tag being forced on them. It's a name to identify as a gay gamer. No reason to think too hard.

Re:Really!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you find out? There might be many reasons why gay gamers would group together like this, one being the disgusting, knuckledragging homophobic and sexist abuse that is rampant in the gaming community, kicking back against that. Being proud of who you are. And you only have to read the cretinous, ugly responses to this post to see the truth of how marglinalised supposedly intelligent nerds can make gay people feel. Use your fucking brain for gods sake.

Re:Really!?

[Annirak]

Trademark doesn't work like that. Trademarks are only valid in particular regions. If Gaymer's is a UK cider producer since 1770AD, then they most likely hold a trademark in the UK. That doesn't mean that another entity can't register the same trademark somewhere else.

Re:Really!?

[QuasiSteve]

You can have trademarks of the same name applied to a different trade. I'm pretty sure that the cider production trade is rather unrelated to the glbt gaming culture trade.

Prior art as to its common use by glbt gamers going back a decade or two would be a more appropriate argument in the trademark dispute.

Re:It's official!!

[Dexter Herbivore]

It'd be nice if the trolls on /. showed a little more intelligence than this, this is just lazy.

Re:this is how EFF spends donation money?

[Dexter Herbivore]

No, by protecting the rights of gaymers online. Reddit is just the test case.

Re:this is how EFF spends donation money?

[Lehk228]

Defending against corporate attempts to poach a name already in use via fraudulent trademark filings is not a good use of their funds?

Except when we're not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Even ignoring the cesspool that is the twelve year olds of FPS games, no, we're not used to it.

MMOs are a prime example. Spend five minutes in one, and you'll see rampant homophobia, bigotry and sexism - ranging from the sadly accepted as tame (EVE Online, usually when one of the aforementioned twelve year olds is relieved of their poorly fitted ship) to making you wonder if you've logged into a fucking Klan meeting (Hi, raiding guilds of EverQuest 2, WoW, et cetera).

Gamers, like most psuedo-anonymous people on the Internets, are largely shitheads; shitheads who will never shut up about buttsex, women making sandwiches, or traps.

It can be incredibly hostile

[SmallFurryCreature]

I played Lord of the Rings Online the most and was a casual raid leader (meaning I organized and ran raids for casual players where often the loot would go to someone who had a birthday or fought well or been really unlucky rather then loot tables, I also didn't care about levels or experience). They were somewhat popular and I was asked to lead other groups... and then found out that in the NON-PUG groups, getting people to talk was a LOT easier. In the PUG raids everyone had sound on but for some reason few had a microphone. Suddenly in the closed raids, most had. And high voices.

Turns out I had been gaming with a lot of women. And I mean a LOT. Some were raids were majority female but when I asked them to join a pug something became clear... they were willing to play BUT could I not reveal they were female.

I have had several discussions online and in the real world were I was told about the kind of abuse female players receive. And this is NOT the rage kind when someone just says "bitch" or the sexual innuendo. Women talk like that too. It were attacks that yes as the AC says, you would expect in Klan meeting. One type of attack is that women have no right to play the game... I mean seriously. WTF?

AND it is not just trolling, there are a lot of REAL misogynists online. They can't vent their putrid bile in real life because they would get beaten up but online they let go.

So... the women hide online and only reveal their gender if they feel safe. AND THAT IS NOT OKAY! If you think it is, then I hate your fucking guts and hope you die before spreading your diseased genes. Because THIS attitude is what fuels extremists by tolerating them. It is basically nothing else then "if you don't want to be raped, don't reveal your gender". It is YOUR kind that created the burkha.

People should be free to be who they are. Yes, there can be gentle ribbing like Q.I. makes fun of homosexuals and hetero's alike BUT that is NOT what gay and female gamers are talking about. Gay and female gamers don't want special regonizition, they simply want to be able to be who they are without getting attacked simply for speaking with a high voice.

And only a closet bigot would start an argument over whether they got the right to be who they are.

Re:It's official!!

[i kan reed]

If it's any less blatant than this it gets modded to +5 insightful.

Re:this is how EFF spends donation money?

[Joehonkie]

"Was the brand free?" It must be lovely seeing the world as a set of exploitable resources through your corporate colored glasses. Who cares if a word was in common use before this guys trademarked it and now he's suing the community he lifted it from? It's value as a "brand" is more important than anything else!

Re:this is how EFF spends donation money?

[Joehonkie]

Except the law doesn't work the way you think it does. You cannot trademark a commonly used term and turn it against its common use. So I can trademark "Apple" as a music or computer company, but I can't trademark it as a brand of apples and sue people for calling their fruit apples.

Re:Really!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you find out? There might be many reasons why gay gamers would group together like this, one being the disgusting, knuckledragging homophobic and sexist abuse that is rampant in the gaming community, kicking back against that. Being proud of who you are. And you only have to read the cretinous, ugly responses to this post to see the truth of how marglinalised supposedly intelligent nerds can make gay people feel. Use your fucking brain for gods sake.

The video game market has expanded beyond supposedly intelligent nerds for at least 15 years now. Once frat boys got XBoxes, the assimilation of that culture had obvious results.

And anyone letting someone else's words make them feel bad for who they are is a weak person, and should get that in check. But instead of toughening up and being a stronger individual, society would rather silence mean bullies.

Ultimately our world will become a worse place for it, much like the overuse of sterilization and anti-bacterial surface treatments is stunting immune system response.