Sounds like a really stupid person at the passport place that thinks their smart. Pretty typical.
*they’re
Newsflash there are plenty of stupid people with perfect grammar.
Okie dokie 👌
I feel like Game of Thrones could have had Harry Potter levels of cultural staying power if they didn’t completely fuck the ending.
I’ve enjoyed house of the dragon but other people have told me it’s too slow
It being slow is exactly why I like it. A focus on characters over plot is sorely lacking in TV these days. Man we were truly spoiled in the aughts and early tens.
is there a court precedent for this? definitely not first child to be named after trademarked word
So, they passport office is concerned that WB won’t approve? ffs.
Right? Like did she have to ask WB for permission to name her kid Khaleesi? Of course not! It’s a kid’s name not a spin off series lol
But does that mean I can name my kid Walt Disney Company?
Excluding laws in certain places meant to protect children from a life of ridicule, you can name your child whatever you want.
The issue of trademark, which is what this article highlights, only concerns applications where there is a business conflict. For example, it is normal for an actor/musician/artist to trademark their name as their “brand,” which means I can’t just form a thrash metal band called “Taylor Swift” to profit off of some confused music listeners. And even if my legal name was Taylor Swift, I could still be required to change my “stage name” to something else when promoting myself as an artist to avoid any confusion/conflict with Tay-Tay.
Last I checked, Warner Bros is not in the passport industry, so this is a dumb argument that should never have occurred. If I had to guess, it was probably just some random disgruntled government employee who felt the need to play armchair activist and “punish” a parent because they didn’t like the name they chose for their child.
… try it out and let us know
Absolutely… Will Disney likely sue you into oblivion? Most likely.
Sure… Walter is a regular first name, and there’s lots of people with the last name Disney. It’s from “de Ysini”, and lots of people lived and live in the Ysini region. Company is from the French compagnie, from Latin companio, where we also get companion.
So “Walter of Ysini, Friend” AKA “Walt Disney Company” is a perfectly legitimate name.
As is Michael Mouse.
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There should be a list of approved names for children.
Who decides what goes on that list?
In a perfect world, me. But it would probably be better if there was a body of 100 or so individuals of diverse backgrounds to make sure we aren’t excluding names for cultural reasons. Names could be submitted for approval. To weed out the Everleighs, the Sexiannas, the Khaleesis. And any names Jamie Oliver would pick.
I don’t know why people think it is acceptable to treat names like an opportunity for creativity, or fun. Names are serious business. And they aren’t a medium for self expression. If I name my dog after a type of pasta, who cares? But imagine having to give someone a business card with “Fusilli Feet” on it. I love Waterworld, but my kid will never have to put down “Mariner Feet” on a resume. My kid is not an extension of me, or my interests.
The only issue here is that it means no one would ever be able to come up with new names. Like not even respectable sounding ones. Even odd sounding family names would be out. The price of freedom is that occasionally some poor kid gets named Optimus Prime von Hammerpants
That’s Senator Optimus Prime von Hammerpants
Yeah, I’m ok with that sacrifice to avoid an Optimus Prime von Hammerpants.
Yeah I hear that’s worked out really well in North Korea 🤣
We have that in my country, kinda. Any common name in the calendar can be chosen automatically. Any other name must be approved and you must prove that it’s a real name somewhere (used significantly, one person with a weird name wouldn’t count).
No.
The Passport Office reportedly later called Lucy to apologize for the error. While officials said they’d now be able to process little Khaleesi’s passport, Lucy said she believes the problem was only solved because she complained on social media.
Sounds like the passport office didn’t understand how trademark works.
The government’s not real good about hiring the best pick for each position. Irregularly run into people who have no clue how to actually run their job, and there’s little to no consequences to f****** people’s lives up by doing it incorrectly.
That’s hardly specific to the government. A couple years ago, Hertz falsely reported 364 customers for grand theft auto. Some of them went to jail.
Most places I’ve worked had incompetent workers. Every state and government agency I’ve ever worked for was made primarily of incompetent workers
Doubt the “whole office” was even involved. More likely it was one incompetent employee. We’ve all been there. It depends on who answers your call as to what answer you get.
Yup. This is the boring but likely true response. You get the one Gareth/Dwight who remembers that memo about not using trademarks in marketing materials and decides they know how this all works and that the rights of Warner Brothers have to be respected before putting their intellectual property on a published document. “Just get the appropriate permission on corporate letterhead and notarized, and this will all be fine.”
Social media is one way to fix it, but I tend to think a couple of layers of escalation would have worked as well, if a bit more slowly.
It’s almost like people should know how their job works
Poor kid.
Khaleesi, 6, a passport was denied — with officials telling her she needed Warner Brothers’ approval because it owns the name’s trademark.
Typical capitalist brain rot.
Shouldn’t they also use the same bullshit excuse when issuing an ID card? At least make the dumb rules consistent.
Does the WB even own that trademark? You have to manually apply for each one. Also, trademarks are specific to commercial operations and two companies are allowed to share if they aren’t in the same business. I don’t think trademark laws even apply here.
Shouldn’t they also use the same bullshit excuse when issuing an ID card? At least make the dumb rules consistent.
To be fair, ID cards aren’t common in the UK and passports are very common. This is quite probably the first time she’s applied for any form of ID. Not agreeing with it, just saying.
The Passport Office reportedly later called Lucy to apologize for the error.
They screwed up, and have admitted they screwed up. Did nobody read the article?
I got half way before the pop-ups became too much.
Fair enough.
Holy shit you weren’t kidding. And I’m on Firefox Focus behind a PiHole with a multi-million blocklist.
By this logic, everyone named Mickey should be paying Disney a royalty…
Wait shit retract delete delete DISNEY I DID JOT SAY ANYTHING DONT GET ANY FUCKING IDEAS NOW.
Mickey is a real name, though. It wasn’t invented by Disney.
Not that their lawyers would care lmao
Yeah if anyone ever expected copyright law or lawyers to be even remotely logical or sane, they’ve got another thing coming to them…
Disney just announced a new IP, Empire of Love. No relation I’m sure.
OH FUUUUUUUUUU-
This comment has been removed due to a copyright claim by Walt Disney Corporation of America
Aren’t they aware that the TV series is based on a book series…? If anyone owns the name it’d be George R.R. Martin…
Did he trademark it? Did he sign that away when HBO did the TV series?
Not that it matters for a passport. But it’s entirely likely a media company owns the trademark for a book character rather than the author.
I think it would be more likely that grrm licensed the trademark and IP to HBO/Discovery rather than sell it. But I don’t actually know
https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00917519208
HBO owns it in the UK. Weirdly, I couldn’t find an active entry in the US database.
Thanks for actually doing the research.
I still believe her actual name was Hodor.
Are they worried that this 6 year old is stealing the identity of a fictional character? 🤨
Why the f is a passport office concerned with a trademark. It is a name of a child… it does not infringe.
People with the last name “Ford” in shambles
As the article states this is bullshit and who knows what the person who denied her passport was thinking.
I’ve met someone whose legal name was Pepsi and she was able to get regular government documents without contacting PepsiCo.
It’s unfortunate this mom had to go to a lawyer for this crap.
That’s a cool name
It’s the Name for a New Generation
I love you too, Pepsi.
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It’s not, and the article clearly says it’s not.
Weren’t a lot of kids name that when that show came out?
I’m just glad the parents named her that before the last season of GOT released.
Otherwise it would be even more concerning.
1a. Folks, before you name your children, don’t make it easy for the big corporations to sue you. Those who “own” (i.e. use the government to suppress your right to free speech) a conlang, be it Dothraki, Klingon, or Tolkien’s language care far more about profit than culture.
In 2012, 146 newborn girls in the United States were named “Khaleesi”, the Dothraki term for the wife of a khal or ruler, and the title adopted in the series by Daenerys Targaryen.[3]
3c. wt:kalisi
Noun
kalisi (n class, plural kalisi)
Alternative form of kalisiamu
Etymology
Borrowed from English calcium.
Folks, before you name your children, don’t make it easy for the big corporations to sue you. Those who “own” (i.e. use the government to suppress your right to free speech) a conlang, be it Dothraki, Klingon, or Tolkien’s language care far more about profit than culture.
Fuck that. My kids have what most people would consider fairly common names, but I’ll name them what I damn well please, and the very last thing I’m going to give a shit about is what some corpo thinks of it.
“I am Drogo Khal, your honor, and these are my two children, Walt Disney and Barbie Mattel.”
I don’t understand why the Passport Office would have even looked.
