LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 23: Cardi B accepts the Album of the Year award for 'Invasion of ... [+]
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has denied Rapper Cardi B’s application to trademark her catchphrase, “Okurr” because it’s too “commonplace.”
Ouch.
Just kidding. That’s actually just normal trademark denial language.
A trademark is intended to indicate the source of goods or services to consumers. The underlying goal is to ensure that the public can trust that a certain product or service is coming from a specific source.
A catchphrase, which is a signature saying used so often that it becomes linked with a person or character, may, indeed, be trademarked; Paris Hilton owns and has even defended the trademark for "That's Hot."
There are several reasons the Trademark Office may deny a catchphrase registration, however, including that it is a “widely used” or “commonplace” expression. Generally, a person’s trademark rights to a catchphrase arise upon their first usage of the term.
The benefits of having a catchphrase trademarked is that it enables to owner to use the saying commercially, which is what Cardi B was planning to do on merchandise, and to prohibit others from doing the same. A trademark owner can sue an alleged infringer in federal court to stop someone else from using it for profit and even recover damages for infringement.
In Cardi B’s case, the powers-that-be cited evidence that “Okurrr” was “commonly used in the drag community and by celebrities as an alternate way of saying ‘OK’ or ‘something that is said to affirm when someone is being put in their place.’” The office’s letter to Cardi B noted that the term appears in many places, including on Etsy, Refinery 29, People, USA Today, Urban Dictionary, and Dictionary.com.
Cardi B now has the opportunity to respond the Trademark Office's refusal and fight for her right to “Okurrr," but based on the evidence cited in the denial letter, she faces an uphill battle.
