From: The Law Offices of Chasem, Suem & Ruinem
To: Pensito Review Editorial Staff
Subject: Treatment of Sarah Palin® in Editorial Copy
It has been widely reported that Sarah Palin® recently trademarked her name and the name of her daughter, Bristol Palin®.
There has been much speculation about why Sarah Palin® would seek trademark status for her name. She gave these reasons on her application:
… usage of the trademark for a website featuring political issues; and educational and entertainment services, including motivational speaking in the fields of politics, culture and values.
We have been working to determine the potential legal ramifications for the Pensito Media Group in the event the editorial staff fails to comply with trademark best practices when covering Sarah Palin® in blog posts.
While we respect the editors’ adherence to Associated Press style, which eschews use of the registered symbol in editorial copy, we are concerned that failure to append the ® symbol to Sarah Palin® and/or Bristol Palin® could be interpreted within the Alaska legal community as trademark infringement, exposing PMG to civil action.
Our solution to the conundrum is to suggest a substitution. Based on Sarah Palin®’s stated reasons for seeking registration — which are solely for the purpose of financial gain — we suggest “Pay-me” as an appropriate substitute that complies with the spirit of the trademark, yet avoids the possible legal repercussions of using the trademark sans symbol.
We believe that repeated references to Sarah Pay-me and Bristol Pay-me will rapidly imprint upon the minds of your readers, and could quickly gain wider use in the media as a solution to similar legal exposure.
Sincerely,
Chasem, Suem & Ruinem, Esq.
Great idea. Love it! Thanks Buck
I thought they forgot to sign the paperwork, leaving us free to refer to them…for free.
Maybe you just need to refer to them as Palin Sarah and Palin Bristol. Problem solved!