Japanese patent workplace throws out try and trademark Yukkuri Let’s Performs

The Japanese patent workplace has reportedly denied a trademark for variations of the phrases “Yukkuri Jikkyou”, “Yukkuri Commentary” and “Yukkuri Gekijo”.

For these unaware, these phrases are used to explain a style of Japanese “Let’s Play” type movies.

All these phrases check with a style of movies the place gameplay is accompanied by comedic text-to-speech commentary popularized by “Yukkuri” memes. Yukkuris themselves are disembodied and malformed heads of Touhou characters (though the meme has expanded past that franchise).

It’s unclear what standing the filer needed to try to trademark the video type. In any case, Yukkuris are primarily based off of Touhou characters, and so they clearly didn’t personal the text-to-speech utilized in making the movies.

You possibly can see an instance of a Yukkuri Jikkyou video under.

Japanese video sharing web site Niconico (previously Nico Nico Douga) shared a assertion applauding the patent workplace’s resolution. Be aware that within the (machine) translation, “Slowly” is a literal translation of “Yukkuri”.

[Notice about the “Slowly ○○ ” trademark]

On February 13, we obtained a discover of causes for refusal from the Patent Workplace relating to the trademark purposes for “Yukuri Jikkyou”, “Yukuri Commentary” and “Yukuri Gekijo”. The content material indicated within the discover of causes for refusal is mostly in line with our opinion, and we welcome this resolution.

Our firm believes that “slowly ○○ ” is extensively used as a sign of video genres, classes, and video content material, and shouldn’t be monopolized by particular corporations or people. We’re nonetheless contemplating particular measures to be taken sooner or later, however to start with, we wish to inform you of the progress we’re happy to make.