It seems that being Tim Tebow is the owner of his name, and the originator of the one-kneed end zone prayer he is so known for, he should be able to trademark the term “Tebowing”, right? He better hope so, as CNN reports that he is pursuing the trademark for the term.
But what if he’s not actually the one who came up with the term?
One of the first to start the meme was Jared Kleinstein, a Denver-born Broncos fan, living in New York. He started a website, www.tebowing.com, defining Tebow as a verb: “To get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different.” He posted a photo of himself “Tebowing.”
Tebow approved of the growing phenomenon at the time writing, “Love it,” on his Twitter account.
A paper trail of documents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office shows that soon after the meme caught fire last year, Kleinstein filed to trademark “Tebowing” and began to sell apparel with the phrase on it.
So what do you think? Should Tebow be allowed to trademark “Tebowing” or does Kleinstein have a right to it?
AP Photo
No, what the freak. You should not be able to copyright a action. If he suceeds it is B.S.
Tim Tebow didn’t invent Tebowing.The Denver guy just stuck his name on something that’s been around at least 25 years. How can you copyright that? I invented the pistol formation so I guess I’ll rename it the pursuitace formation and see if I can copyright it.
No, absolutely not. That’s absurd. Copyright law is now being stretched beyond belief.
Trademarking was a way for corporations (and has been picked up by individuals) to for all intents and purposes copyright something someone else ‘invented’. Right now the whole copyright, patent and trademark systems is screwed up beyond recognition, these systems were invented to allow people to invent ‘stuff’ and then profit from it BUT to also allow innovation by limiting the length and terms of those protections. This changed some time ago when DISNEY realized that mickey mouse trademark/copyright was running out. They lobbied hard and heavy to extend the length to something like 99 years. Various courts have upheld… Read more »