[Infowarrior] - Trademarks to Privatizate the English Language

[Richard Forno]

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (or, the Privatization of the English  
Language)
Post written by Leo Babauta.

http://zenhabits.net/2009/04/feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway-or-the-privatization-of-the-english-language/comment-page-8/#comment-67819

Today I received an email from the lawyers of author Susan Jeffers,  
PhD., notifying me that I’d infringed on her trademark by  
inadvertently using the phrase “feel the fear and do it anyway” in my  
post last week, A Guide to Beating the Fears That Hold You Back.

The phrase, apparently, is the title of one of her books … a book I’d  
never heard of. I wasn’t referring to her book. I’m not using the  
phrase as a title of a book or product or to sell anything. I was just  
referring to something a friend said on Twitter.

Her lawyers asked me to insert the (R) symbol after the phrase, in my  
post, and add this sentence: “This is the registered trademark of  
Susan Jeffers, Ph.D. and is used with her permission.”

Yeah. I’m not gonna do that.

I find it unbelievable that a common phrase (that was used way before  
it was the title of any book) can be trademarked. We’re not talking  
about the names of products … we’re talking about the English  
language. You know, the words many of us use for such things as …  
talking, and writing, and general communication? Perhaps I’m a little  
behind the times, but is it really possible to claim whole chunks of  
the language, and force people to get permission to use the language,  
just in everyday speech?

What if this were taken to an extreme? What if some billionaire (say,  
Bill Gates) decided to start trademarking thousands and thousands of  
phrases, so that he could charge us for each use, or so that we’d have  
to link back to the Microsoft homepage with each reference? The  
language, in this scenario, could be entirely privatized if we allow  
this sort of thing.

So, while this post is probably ill-advised (and yes, I realize that  
I’m actually giving publicity to Ms. Jeffers), I have to object. I  
think we have a duty, as writers and bloggers and speakers of the  
English language, to defend our rights to … words. Free speech is a  
bit of an important concept, I think.

As an aside, I think the idea of jealously protecting copyright and  
trademarks, in this digital age, is outdated and ignorant. You want  
your ideas to spread, and you should encourage people to spread your  
ideas, not put up all kinds of boundaries and restrictions and  
obstacles to that being done. This blog, for example, is  
Uncopyrighted, and will always be free, because I want people to  
spread my posts and ideas. I think it’s actually good for me as a  
writer, and it’s (not insignificantly) better for the writing  
community in general if we can share each others’ work freely. I’m  
hoping that with posts like this, and the good work of thousands of  
other like-minded people, the old mindset of fencing off ideas and  
language will slowly change.

So, no, I will not be adding a Registered Trademark symbol to the  
previous post. And no, I won’t be adding a phrase of legalese to the  
post. And no, I won’t even attribute the phrase or link to her book,  
as I wasn’t referring to the book. And no, I won’t remove the phrase.

I’d rather be sued.

Oh, and I’m not going to change the title of this post either. You’ll  
have to remove it from my cold, dead iMac.

—

On a side note: You may feel free to use the title of my book, The  
Power of Less, in any of your blog posts, on Twitter or even (gasp)  
everyday conversation.