Writer asks for an exclusive trademark on the use of the word "dark" in "Series of fiction works, namely, novels and books"

boing
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The Prince of the Dank Chamber
The Dank Chambers of My Heart
Dankness Reigns
Absolute Dank

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“Seems nobody wants to hang out in a dank pit no more.”

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Somehow, I think a Chuck Tingle title would take care of this foolishness.
Instead of trying for limitations on the use of a word in titles, why not work on making your writing so good that people remember it without any prompting?

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The brand seems to have mostly faded away, but whenever I see the word “Juicy” across the butt of a pair of sweatpants, I really want to replace it with “■■■■■”.

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I didn’t get the reference until I posted my other comment. (Testing, testing, 1-2-3)

■■■■■, rich chocolate cake
■■■■■ towelettes
Moisturizer
Moisten

First I’d heard of this particular censor. What’s up with that?

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It’s a standing joke on the BBS, started by @beschizza (I think). The rationale is that some delicate souls find the word offensive or suggestive, so it’s blacked out.

Now that I have trademarked it, as well as the word “great”, I am using the word in my new book series, retelling some well-known works of literature.

■■■■■ Expectations
The ■■■■■ Gatsby
Peter the ■■■■■: His Life and World
The ■■■■■ Adventure Catholic Bible

“The history of the world is but the biography of ■■■■■ men”
– Thomas Carlyle

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I think what’s slightly problematic in the original article is the idea that the previous author that tried this tack was doing so as a way to take down scammers. The courts and key industry groups seem to have formed a different opinion.

It’s possible that some people impacted in that process were unsavory, but the reality is that it had enough of an impact on romance authors as a whole that two industry advocacy groups - The Author’s Guild and Romance Writer’s of America - fought it in court and won. See: https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-rwa-prevail-court-defending-authors-cocky-trademark-dispute/

As stated above, IP overreach and its potential for weaponization as a competitive tactic within publishing - especially against writers that may not have the resources to fight this - can slow things down or throw up enough roadblocks to end careers. And that should be really concerning to anyone that’s in publishing or publishing-related fields.

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