#rebelliongate: Kingsley Brothers Taste Authors’ Rebellion Against Their Trademark Attempt
Yet another common English word has been filed for a trademark, and it’s causing the author community great distress.
I mean, why not, when it can be the start of more unnecessary owning and exclusivity of words that should be free to be used by everyone in the first place.
The biggest and perhaps most frightening question to ask is
WHAT WORD WILL BE NEXT?
We might wake up one day and find out we are running low on common words to use, clipping our freedom to write and express ourselves as writers.
The Kingsley brothers have applied trademark to the United States Patent & Trademark Office for the word REBELLION, in an attempt to protect their long-running UK games firm bearing the said name.
Even on its early onset, it’s already receiving so much backlash from concerned authors who are seeing the same pattern with what Faleena Hopkins did to the word “cocky” (see #cockygate scandal).
Having been successfully filed, the trademark is due for publishing on May 15, 2018 – unless there is significant opposition.
A significant opposition is indeed forming, especially via social media platforms, as more and more authors are finding out about this news. Independent authors, just last night, have started the Twitter war, and they’re tagging it #rebelliongate.
Yup! Just last week it was #cockygate, now it’s #rebelliongate. It’s a crazy time to be alive.
So, exactly why are authors “rebelling”? (pun intended).
Well, for starters, the application of trademark appears to be so broad that it includes the prevention of authors from using the term “Rebellion” in the title of any books. Aside from that, it also includes some unusual inclusions for the following: Christmas tree decorations, cinematic films, combs and sponges, egg cups, global positioning systems, household and kitchen utensils, household linen, music composition software, unworked or semi-worked glass (except building glass).
Going through the list, you can’t help but wonder if those are a random selection or computer-generated, lottery-winner words, right? I mean, I cannot in any way no matter how hard I try, link a Christmas Tree decor with the term rebellion is not a common term in household items, and trademarking it would really not affect several products and services. In book titles, however, the term is very popular. Especially since it is such a strong word and can really catch the attention of readers when used appropriately.
In Kindle alone, if you search for books with the word “rebellion” in its title, it will come back with a whopping 5000 results… and that’s just Kindle books!
As the Twitter war persists, strong forces are keeping their firm ground in opposing the Kingsley brothers.
Writer Kevin Kneupper has been making several exchanges of tweets with Jason Kingsley himself, who has been actively responding to bashers all over the internet.
Jason clarified in one tweet that they have no plans on going after authors who want to use the term rebellion in their title:
Many are suspicious about this “promise” though, because why would they have it in the inclusion in the first place if they are not planning to use… and earn money from it, right?
More updates are yet to unfold, especially since today is the due date for the trademark to publish. Follow our page to hear the news first.