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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Religion Jesus Sues

Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 6:59 AM

In a branding coup of biblical proportions, an Italian jeans maker persuaded the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2007 to register the word "Jesus" as a trademark, giving the company exclusive rights in America to sell clothing bearing the name of Christianity's central figure. Since then, the owner of the trademark, Jesus Jeans, has clamped down on Jesus-themed apparel, pitting its litigators against more than a dozen other startup clothing lines it claims appropriated "Jesus" without the company's blessing.

The company that owns "Jesus" is basically suing people who wanted to make a quick buck by selling crappy "Jesus" t-shirts at Christian rock shows... so, yeah, letting someone trademark "Jesus" is pretty stupid, but I'm not going to get too worked up about the fallout. And it could've been worse:

The company doesn't have a trademark on images of Jesus, just the word.

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Comments (17) RSS

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Posted by Christian87 on March 28, 2013 at 5:37 AM

I like @11's angle. Who says the coming of Jesus has to be in human form? There's a great short story there...

Posted by debug on February 28, 2013 at 10:39 AM

http://godbegone.blogspot.com/2007/06/je…

Posted by Drew2u on February 28, 2013 at 7:08 AM

Why doesn't a company try to trademark "USA" ? It's just a word, after all. If "Jesus" can be trademarked, "USA" should, too.

Posted by sissoucat on February 28, 2013 at 12:35 AM

Given the absurdity of some of the patents the PTO has approved over the last decade, I'm not surprised this kind of idiocy has extended to the trademark side of the house.

Posted by Wandergeist on February 27, 2013 at 1:15 PM

11, does this mean that only job creators are gonna be Raptured?

Posted by kwodell on February 27, 2013 at 12:13 PM

Does that mean that Jesus is now a corporate "people"? IT'S THE SECOND COMING!

Posted by sirkowski

on February 27, 2013 at 12:06 PM

Can you imagine if they'd tried this stunt with "Muhammad?" It would either be 24 hour security a la Rushdie or some seriously dead fashionistas.

It's hard to smirk with your throat slit.

Posted by Westside forever on February 27, 2013 at 11:54 AM

I can't wait for all mainstream religions to Scientology-like patent their "business methods" and "trade secrets".

Posted by undead ayn rand on February 27, 2013 at 10:16 AM

Religion & Capitalism:Allies Not Enemies!

Posted by treacle on February 27, 2013 at 10:01 AM

Jesus condoms would be more to the point. Ad slogan, "When someone says, Jesus, you know someone is gonna get fucked".

Posted by kwodell on February 27, 2013 at 9:36 AM

What about Jesu's (Hey-Soohs) jeans? I mean, can't latinos use their own name?

Posted by LML on February 27, 2013 at 9:26 AM

Oh Rob! I just snorted my coffee. Bravo

Posted by Lissa on February 27, 2013 at 7:50 AM

@2
But wouldn't Judas Jeans self-destruct the same day that Jesus Jeans declares bankruptcy? So then in three days, you end up with just a single company and no competition.

Posted by seatackled on February 27, 2013 at 7:46 AM