CNN Wants to Trademark WHAT?!?!?

TVNewser’s Alex Weprin reports that CNN is looking to trademark the term “Magic Wall”. I hope they fail. Spectacularly.

Now, however, it appears that the channel wants to make sure that the “Magic Wall” is for CNN use only. Earlier this month the channel applied for a trademark on the term “Magic Wall” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to filings obtained by TVNewser.

If CNN was really serious about trademarking Magic Wall they would have done so four years ago when they first rolled it out. Doing it now is just silly and probably opens the network up to all sorts of generic use arguments. I hope all the other networks fight them over it and CNN winds up losing.

I’m no lawyer but it seems to me that should CNN win this it would establish a bad precedent where a network introduces a concept and a name, it takes hold across the industry and is used all over, and then years after the fact the network tries to regain control of it by applying for a trademark; in effect trying to put the genie back into the bottle it itself opened.

Out here in the tech world we don’t wait around four years to apply for a trademark on an idea we came up with. We apply for it before we even announce the product or concept.

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