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Internet Fark.com Tries to Lay Claim to "Not Safe For Work"
Jason Mick (Blog) - December 10, 2007 11:46 AM

33 comment(s) - last by tjr508.. on Dec 11 at 6:00 PM

It was inevitable: Fark files a trademark for the common phrase "Not safe for work"

From "Trogdor the burninator" to "All your base are belong to us" the Internet is awash with insider vernacular that is continuously evolving and changing.

Among these bastions is the phrase "Not safe for work" or NSFW for short. This phrase indicates material that contains adult content or other content that you would not want to view on work. A lot of items dubbed NSFW are materials that take a sarcastic bent on the workplace and would be sure to infuriate tight-collared bosses.

Now Fark.com has filed a very silly trademark application to try to gain legal control of the phrase. It says in the application that it wants to protect its claim to "Entertainment Services namely providing a website featuring photographic, audio, video and prose presentations featuring comedic captions regarding current events and online discussions and/or reviews of web materials of an adult nature; Entertainment services, namely, providing a web site featuring musical performances, musical videos, related film clips, photographs, and other multimedia materials; Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line reviews of photographs and /or web postings of an adult nature."

The term is already deeply entrenched in colloquial use, so it would seem like a major oversight if granted -- but you never can predict what will happen. Many websites and comics use NSFW or the full term in their titles.

Fark.com is a site which chiefly collects and allows users to comment on news stories from various internet sources.

This trademark filing follows a long string of silly trademark and patent applications, including IBM's recent efforts to patent efficient job outsourcing. Here's to hoping that no one tries to trademark "Binary Heroes" anytime soon!

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"Trogdor the burninator"

By Brandon Hill

(blog) on 12/10/2007 1:45:25 PM , Rating: 1

"Trogdor the burninator"

I've never heard that one before

RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 12/10/2007 1:46:20 PM , Rating: 2

You've never burninated the people?

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By Omega215D on 12/10/2007 1:51:52 PM , Rating: 3

I burninated my place of work when my boss didn't return my red Swingline stapler.

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By FITCamaro on 12/10/2007 2:19:53 PM , Rating: 2

Did your desk get moved into the basement?

I've seen so many Office Space references in the past few days. And I even watched it on Saturday.

"I'll put strictanine(sp?) in the guacamole."

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By Omega215D on 12/10/2007 3:16:06 PM , Rating: 2

No but we did take our anger out on an HP all in one machine to the tune of Geto boys.

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By MikeO on 12/11/2007 7:14:41 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
strictanine(sp?)

Strychnine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strychnine

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By bodar on 12/10/2007 2:34:01 PM , Rating: 3

No no no, "peasants", not "people". As we all know, peasants are not people.

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By omnicronx on 12/10/2007 7:31:18 PM , Rating: 2

And The Trogdor Comes In NIGHT!!!!!!!

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By TrogdorJW on 12/11/2007 4:47:27 AM , Rating: 2

Someone call my name? Check out all my majesty!

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By cleco on 12/10/2007 2:11:26 PM , Rating: 3

homestarrunner.com

Its strongbad's Song that was put on GH2. wikipedia it, prolly give you links to every version of the song.

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By therealnickdanger on 12/10/2007 3:48:04 PM , Rating: 2

Population: tiiiiii-iiii-re!

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RE: "Trogdor the burninator"

By Alexstarfire on 12/10/2007 2:18:44 PM , Rating: 2

You need to check out Homestarrunner then. www.homestarrunner.com

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Dilution?

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 12/10/2007 1:52:55 PM , Rating: 2

I recently went through a trademark ordeal. I think these guys are insane if they believe an examiner will let this through.

RE: Dilution?

By totallycool on 12/10/2007 1:57:38 PM , Rating: 4

Hey, you put a link to their site for the world to see. So i guess they achieved what they wanted ;D

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RE: Dilution?

By Moishe on 12/10/2007 2:02:06 PM , Rating: 2

and..... what did you trademark? :)

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RE: Dilution?

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 12/10/2007 2:07:22 PM , Rating: 2

I'll tell you in 30 days when any statutes of limitation of opposition proceedings expire :-P

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RE: Dilution?

By Ratwar on 12/11/2007 12:36:50 AM , Rating: 3

Yeah, if this happens to have something to do with a 'Daily PornTech' site I'll be very disappointed in your sense of marketing...

However, if it is Jason Mick vs Michael Asher battle Royal, you should be immortalized in stone.

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RE: Dilution?

By FITCamaro on 12/10/2007 2:17:12 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah if they got that trademark that would show just how flawed our system is. That "phrase" is one of the most commonly used on the net. It'd be like trademarking "Laugh out Loud" or "Shut the F*** Up".

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RE: Dilution?

By kileil on 12/10/2007 2:41:49 PM , Rating: 3

In fact, its exactly like that!

Please make out your check to STFU-LOL! Inc and thanks much for doing business and I hope you enjoyed our product!

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RE: Dilution?

By Screwballl on 12/10/2007 3:52:33 PM , Rating: 1

this would be like Steam trying to get a patent/trademark on l33t 5p34|< (leet speak)

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RE: Dilution?

By MeTaedet on 12/11/2007 1:12:34 AM , Rating: 2

It's some kind of lame joke, doubling as a pathetic attempt by Drew to make yet more cash, I'm guessing.

Here's an official statement from him at Fark.

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

Drew is a useful idiot - useful in the sense that he keeps Fark running which I enjoy, idiot in the sense that he's an idiot.

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Well

By SPAMSPAMSPAM on 12/10/2007 1:50:50 PM , Rating: 2

4chan has had that saying for a while too, but i dont see it on their page anymore. /b/ is bookmarked now

RE: Well

By elpresidente2075 on 12/10/2007 7:59:52 PM , Rating: 2

1 & 2

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I lay claim to the ENGLISH LANGUAGE!

By wingless on 12/10/2007 9:09:58 PM , Rating: 3

"I hereby and nowtherewhenhere-ago do announce that I officially and irrevocably own the ENGLISH LANGUAGE and all the vocabulary heretherein simply because I speaketh said language. It belongs to me. All of you owe me money from nowtherewhenhere-ago and ASAPidity and forever and ever" Section 1, Page 1, Paragraph 1 of Wingless's English Language Copyright. Do not post a reply or you will owe me EUR 1.34 per word (like USD $5 by now or somethin cause of the Chinese causing it to depreciate and stuff...). BTW, the English language includes all loan/root words from Latin, Greek, French, etc. So you Frenchies better watch what you say too gawdammit!

American law has become just about as silly as the nonsense I just wrote. I can't believe that somebody would be given the remote chance to copyright or trademark any commonly used phrase. They may as well try to own an entire language if this precedent holds up! Our laws are ridiculous now and FARK.com should be taken out back and shot for this stupidity.

If they win...

By ThisSpaceForRent on 12/10/2007 3:38:28 PM , Rating: 2

maybe it will spur Rambus to start a new series of lawsuits. I'm sure there are mounds of untapped lawsuits by playing word games.

Someone please trademark the following

By RogueSpear on 12/10/2007 7:29:59 PM , Rating: 2

so that I never have to see or hear them again:

"Having said that" and all derivatives like "That being said".

"At the end of the day".

Alternatives

By Kamasutra on 12/10/2007 8:54:21 PM , Rating: 2

If they are granted the trademark, which I hope they aren't, all is not lost. One could still use "Not suitable/suited for work" and keep the same acronym.

You forgot Jesus

By tjr508 on 12/11/2007 6:00:40 PM , Rating: 2

If this works, Drew has stated he wants to trademark Jesus Christ and some other well known figures that nobody has bothered to trademark before.

News or Editorial?

By rangerdavid on 12/10/07, Rating: -1

RE: News or Editorial?

By Murst on 12/10/2007 3:08:12 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not sure where you've been for the past thousands of years, but news and opinions have been mixed in together since people started communicating.

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RE: News or Editorial?

By eyebeeemmpawn on 12/10/2007 5:24:00 PM , Rating: 2

if you want news without opinion, go check out fox news...it's fair and balanced /sarc

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RE: News or Editorial?

By Ringold on 12/10/2007 5:53:40 PM , Rating: 2

Doh. I thought I was clicking to vote down, but voted up. Just canceling my own vote here, move along folks, move along.

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RE: News or Editorial?

By mindless1 on 12/10/2007 11:43:48 PM , Rating: 1

Dear reader, when you are all grown up you will begin to appreciate that the title of an article is a tiny little hint about the content, and a key way to choose whether or not to read it.

If there was confusion from reading this article title, just turn off your monitor and do something else instead.

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