"In light of the phrase’s popularity, it’s
not likely that any of the applications will be approved, said Josh
Gerben, a trademark lawyer and founder of Gerben Law Firm, who noticed the filing by Fox Media on Monday.
“I
think they are all very likely to meet the same fate, which is the
U.S.P.T.O. will issue what is called a widely used message refusal,” Mr.
Gerben said in an interview on Tuesday, adding that the definition of a
trademark “has to identify a single company or individual as a source
of a product or service.”
Once something like a meme goes viral and is widely used by people, it cannot legally function as a trademark, he said."
