Last but not least: Non-discriminatory tastelessness
The Federal Patent Court has approved the «Ficken» trademark. The road to that decision, however, was long and arduous.
According to Wuv.de, the liquor manufacturer Efag Trade Mark Company may register the F-word with the German Patent and Trademark Office. With this decision, the judges put an end to a marathon legal battle between the authorities and the company. The Patent and Trademark Office had stubbornly refused to register the trademark. The reasoning: The word was "perceived by the targeted public, especially by representatives of older generations, as a sign of the brutalization of language usage, as disturbing and repulsive." [Editor's note: Please note the appropriate term "public"]. However, the Federal Patent Court did not agree: The trademark applied for did not offend common decency. Although "Ficken" could hardly meet the requirements of good taste, this did not matter because it did not contain any discriminatory statements beyond mere bad taste. The situation is different with "breast grabber" or "thigh spreader". "Ficken", on the other hand, is acceptable under trademark law. Incidentally, the court document in question consists of no less than seven pages and would certainly be an interesting and above all entertaining read.
Let's hope that the Werbewoche newsmail finds its way to the subscribers and is not fished out by the spam filter - unfortunately, with so many gruesome words, this is to be expected.
