So you won’t often see me use TMZ as a viable source for my blog posts (especially when they misstate in the title the legal issue as one about copyright when it really involves trademark … but I digress [click here to learn the difference between copyright and trademark]). I just read the TMZ blog post about Ryan Lochte’s attempt to register his purported catch phrase “JEAH!” (like “YEAH” but with a J … but again, I digress).
So here’s TMZ’s explanation of the intellectual property hoopla between Lochte and Eiht:
“U.S. Olympic hero Ryan Lochte might have an unexpected speed bump on his way to trademarking the phrase “Jeah!”`in the form of 90s rap star MC Eiht, who claims the phrase was his long before it was Lochte’s.
Eiht tells TMZ he coined the phrase back in 1988 and is insulted to hear Lochte is trying to claim it as his own now. Eiht tells us, “Why try and trademark something his ass didn’t even create? I am mad that he isn’t giving me proper recognition for taking my saying. He is just disrespectful.”
[**blink blink** um … okay … not exactly the type of legal theory I teach in my class but **shrug**]
Read the full article at: http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/18/ryan-lochte-mc-eiht-jeah-copyright/#ixzz242WrTdPJ