As you might have heard, earlier this month Sony tried to trademark the term “Let’s Play”. For those unfamiliar with the significance of the term, basically this has been used in many videos on YouTube to denote a playthrough of a video game and it does not necessarily belong to anyone. Kind of like how some vlogs are titled “Vlog:” followed by the name.
So you can imagine that many people were upset with Sony’s attempts to trademark what felt like a pretty generic term that has been in use by the public for a while now. In fact Sony’s attempts had been rejected by the USPTO and according to The McArthur Law Firm (via VG247), they explain why, and also how it is possible that Sony will never be granted the trademark.
The McArthur Law Firm actually sent the USPTO a letter of protest in which they cited over 50 examples of how the term is generic and descriptive, in which the organization agreed and in their rejection letter, it reads that the registration was refused because the trademark Sony was trying to apply for “merely describes a feature of applicant’s services”.
The law firm also notes that based on this, it is likely that Sony will not be able to work around the rejection. That being said, Sony has until the 29th of June to offer a counter argument to the rejection, and why they deserve to be granted the trademark, but until then it seems like The McArthur Law Firm is confident that they will most likely not be getting it, which might be good news for streamers out there.
Filed in . Read more about Legal, PlayStation and Sony.