back to article German firm fails to trademark !

A German clothing manufacturer has failed in its bid to register ! as a trade mark, the Telegraph reports. Joop! pitched two versions of the excitable punctuation mark for consideration - one on its own and another with an ! "inside a rectangular frame". The Court of First Instance in Luxembourg backed a ruling by the Office …

COMMENTS

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  1. The Indomitable Gall

    Cue...

    Cue thousands of spreadshirt, zazzle, shirtcity etc etc users making Ts with big exclamation marks to thoroughly blast the "distinctive character" thing out of the water.

  2. Jonathan 17

    In other news....

    Yahoo! exclaimed! how! relieved! they! were!

  3. Martin 19
    Coat

    If! They! Had! Succeeded!,

    Where! Would! That! Leave! The! Register's! Yahoo! Related! Headlines!?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Absolute class...

    ...on tacking a bang on the end of the 'be the first to post a comment' link. Fantastic!

  5. Richard 81

    Then

    I shall enjoy my freedom to overuse the exclamation mark without impunity.

    Like so.

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Take that Joop!

  6. disgruntled yank

    slamming

    There was an American years ago who used to charter "Beatles tours" of Liverpool. I forget his name, but he felt that he to himself justice he needed an exclamation point officially added to his name. So Mr. X filed papers with the court and thereafter was Mr. X!.

  7. Lockwood
    Joke

    Awesome!™

    Amazing!™

    We can still use this wonderful piece of punctuation in our day to day writings!™

    Imagine the poor mathemticians writing factorials without this symbol!™ 3!™ is equal to 6.

    Programming would be a pain. if (x!™=y) { ... }

    How did they ever think they'd be able to do this?!™

  8. Ozwadi Ogolugi

    Complete

    uber twats!!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Badgers

    Cheeky! Bastards!

    For! Obvious! Reasons! (No! Badgers! Involved!)

  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    OK, I just noticed...

    ...that ALL of the 'be first to post...' things have a ! at the end. I guess it didn't sink in before! I fail at both humor and perceptiveness - but it DOES suggest that the !'s power is somewhat diluted, doesn't it?!

  11. Tim Croydon

    What! have! Yahoo! got! to! do! with! it!?

    Different class of goods. No conflict there.

  12. Lockwood
    Alert

    What didn't I think of that?!™

    @AC: Nice one!™

    I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that myself!™

    Yahoo!™ Headlines!™ To!™ Become!™ Longer!™ And!™ More!™ Common!™

    The other funny thing will be seeing kids on gaming forums when they get upset:

    OMG!™ NO FAIR U CHEATED!™!™!™!™!™1111!™!™1111oneoneone

  13. peter 45

    Different class= no conflict

    Try telling those who have have got bone letters from bone Lawyers insructed by bone manufacturers who seem to think that a trademark gives them absolute and unique rights to that name. Remember Monster Cables? McDonalds?

  14. Tanuki
    Stop

    "______ " ® 1

    No doubt there's some agitprop-delusionist or mime out there who is this minute pondering whether to seek a trademark on " " [white-space].

  15. James O'Brien
    Pint

    @Lockwood

    "The other funny thing will be seeing kids on gaming forums when they get upset:

    OMG!™ NO FAIR U CHEATED!™!™!™!™!™1111!™!™1111oneoneone"

    ROFL cheers!™

  16. nowster

    Victor Hugo's publisher got there first

    Manufacturer: "!" ?

    Court: ¬

  17. Tim Roberts 1
    Paris Hilton

    What !!!!!!

    It defies logic that anyone would even think of trademarking/copyrighting/effing whatevering a symbol that has been used and continues to be used in everyday written English.

    What a pack of MORONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    maybe I should 'capitalise" on the use of capitals.......

    Paris cos she likes the large (capital) versions! - from what I've heard!

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