Sense has prevailed this morning, as it has come to light that Sony Computer Entertainment America has been prevented from trademarking the term “Let’s Play” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They also have until this time to explain why they should be granted the trademark.
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It didn’t originally deny the application because of it being a well-known and widely used term, like you’d have expected them to.
To support its rejection of Sony’s application, the USPTO’s evidence consisted entirely of the first two sources included in the McArthur firm’s Letter of Protest: the Wikipedia page for Let’s Play and the /r/letsplay subreddit.
In this case, applicant seeks to register the wording LET’S PLAY for “Electronic transmission and streaming of video games via global and local computer networks; streaming of audio, visual, and audiovisual material via global and local computer networks”.
Now, it appears that the company has received a second “far more lethal” rejection.
On Wednesday, a post on The McArthur Law Firm website announced that the Letter of Protest worked.
Next week: Sony tries to trademark the word “foot”.
Today, the firm say the USPTO agrees, and Sony’s application has been refused.
Sony now has six months to refute the claim and convince the office that the term is not generic and identifies with their brand.
McArthur’s founding attorney, Stephen McArthur, said that the initial ruling “was in reality just a minor nuisance”, for Sony, but added that company “will not be able to overcome this rejection”.
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However, those with a relatively normal amount of knowledge on the matter wondered why it wasn’t denied on the grounds that “Let’s Play” is already an established term used by everyone.
