Two weeks ago, we reported that The McArthur Law Firm filed a letter of protest against Sony’s trademark application for “Let’s Play.” The firm argued that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) turned down Sony’s application for weak reasons that can be easily overcome, and had ignored Sony’s “shameless attempt to monopolize a generic term used by gamers throughout the world.” The USPTO has now responded to the letter of protest, agreeing with McArthur Law and has strengthened its reasons for rejecting the application. According to a post on the firm’s website:
The previous “rejection,” widely misreported a few weeks ago, was in reality just a minor nuisance to Sony. This rejection is far more lethal to Sony’s trademark application. To support its rejection, the USPTO’s evidence consisted entirely of the first two sources included in our Letter of Protest: the Wikipedia page for Let’s Play and the /r/letsplay subreddit.
Given the strength of this evidence, we are confident that Sony will not be able to overcome this rejection. The term “Let’s Play” is now forever in the public domain.
It’s unclear if Sony ever intended to respond to the initial rejection in the first place. The company has not released a statement regarding the issue.
[Source: McArthur Law]
