Good morning Hank, it's Tuesday.
I've been thinking a lot about Kylie Jenner.
By the way, this is a story in which no one
is telling the entire truth, including me!
But right, I’ve been thinking a lot
about Kylie Jenner.
I don't WANT to be, exactly, but I went on
reddit and I saw this post
with 129,000 upvotes titled, "Kylie Jenner
thinks she owns the phrase rise and shine.”
Highly upvoted comments included,
"Can we fundraise to countersue?"
and hundreds of other angry takedowns,
and literally no one pointing out
that this entire story was fictional.
Then again, Jenner's response to the story
was a little misleading.
Okay, so I guess at some point
Kylie Jenner said Rise and Shine
in a funny way that got extensively memefied
and then Jenner quickly released some merch,
which by the way is exactly
what I would do if something I said were viewed
a billion views on tiktok.
But anyway, then TMZ reported that Jenner’s
company had filed to trademark
the phrase "Rise and Shine" in the context
of cosmetics and clothing,
and people got rather upset.
But the thing to remember is that
trademarking a phrase
is not the same thing as owning the phrase.
Like Nike did not invent the idea of
Just Doing It, and indeed
Shia LaBeouf is not infringing
on Nike's trademark when he says,
"Just do it."
He would only be infringing on Nike’s trademark
if he said Just Do It
in certain contexts—like the marketing
of sportswear context.
Similarly, if Kylie Jenner trademarked
the phrase Rise and Shine,
I could still annoy my children by saying
Rise and Shine every morning;
I just couldn't start a cosmetics line
called Rise and Shine.
That is, of course, assuming the trademark
applications are approved,
which they might not be, because
several other companies already
have "rise and shine" related trademarks,
which presumably
Jenner's lawyers knew about because
they are also seeking to trademark
the somewhat less common phrase,
"Rise with three i's and shine with five total vowels."
And then, just as outrage about
these trademark applications is growing,
the Gold Coast Bulletin in Australia
publishes a story claiming that
a small t-shirt company that sells
“Rise and Shine” t-shirts
has received a cease and desist letter
from Kylie Jenner.
This is the story that became a tweet
that got screenshotted
and became a reddit post that got
129,000 upvotes,
and it is entirely false—it has been denied
not just by Jenner
but also by the Australian t-shirt company.
How did this story get published?
I don’t know.
Maybe a source exaggerated.
Maybe there was a miscommunication.
The real question is,
“How come I only read one story in the Gold
Coast Bulletin this year, and it was that one?”
Right? Like the problem is that I am much more
likely to click on their inaccurate news
than on their accurate news.
Assuming they have any.
I know nothing about the outlet!
So then Jenner says on twitter, “I have not sent
any Rise and Shine cease and desist letters.
Rise and Shine was an unexpected moment.
I had a lot of fun with it, and I have laughed
so hard seeing everyone’s memes.”
Which is an amazing statement
and was definitely vetted by a lawyer.
That statement does an amazing job of avoiding the fact
that should those trademark applications be granted,
Jenner’s company will be required by law
to send lots of cease and desist letters,
including potentially to small companies
selling Rise and Shine t-shirts.
If you have a trademark, you are not
legally allowed to selectively enforce it,
and you have to enforce it,
otherwise you lose the trademark.
This is why, as explained elsewhere,
Hank and I have never trademarked
the phrase, “Don’t forget to be awesome”
or the initialism “DFTBA.”
In short, trademark law is complicated.
I said at the beginning I wasn’t going to
tell the whole truth, and I haven’t.
Even this video has
radically oversimplified it.
But I hope it hasn’t been too oversimplified
because at a certain point,
distillation becomes a form of deception.
That’s true when it comes to
the life and times of Kylie Jenner,
but also when it comes to much larger news stories,
and this isn’t only a problem on reddit.
I mean, all. over. the place
headlines misrepresented the truth.
I get that nuance isn’t as likely to generate
129,000 upvotes as outrage,
but until it is, we’re going to be swimming
in a lot of misinformation.
Hank, I’ll see you on Friday.
