InLaughter slogan trademark does not make me smile
November 13th, 2008 | 
Author: I read in my local newspaper recently about this guy who is a ‘Laughterologist’. He offered some workshops in the area to introduce locals to the benefit of aerobic laughter.
Apparently you can get an excellent cardio and aerobic workout by rediscovering your natural laughing capabilities. Kids laugh a lot when they are small and we all tend to laugh a lot less when we grow up (yeah, don’t we just know it!) but laughter is an excellent way to combat stress. Aerobic laughter triggers the body’s natural de-stressing mechanisms. This sounded great so I checked out their website. What a disappointment.
For people that are supposed to be all about laughter and de-stressing, they are pretty serious about their copyright and trademarks!
In fact, no further information available on their site except a lot of links leading off to dire warnings about their copyright and trademark. Urk… I mean - can they really take out a trademark on the words MAKE THEM LAUGH?
On one of their sites they state:
“Make them Laugh is a new slogan used worldwide to market laughter services provided by individuals or legal persons licensed by International Laughter Institute.”
Frankly, things like this make my blood boil and increases my stress levels instead of decreasing it.
Who gives them the right to trademark the words “MAKE THEM LAUGH” ???? My understanding was always that you can only trademark a really unique term, not something that is in ubiquitous use?
See http://www.inlaughter.org…
Tags: aerobic workout, cardio, laughter, slogan, stress levels, stress managementRelated posts
Posted in Managing Stress | 
Tags: aerobic workout, cardio, laughter, slogan, stress levels, stress management
November 19th, 2008 1:38 am
You can trademark any term, even common words, as long as they’re not generic for the type of product or service being offered. For example, you cannot trademark the word “APPLE” for a brand of apples; however, you can certainly trademark that word for a brand of computers.
August 4th, 2009 1:11 pm
Thank you so much for your insight and wisdom. My thoughts exactly. The saddest thing is that this man who calls himself International Laughter Institute is a one man show who came to SA (supposedly for 3 weeks) to learn from me. He lived off me, stayed in my house and owes a lot of money. He high jacked authenticity, refused to take us off his website because he traded on our good names, including a short list of internationally recognized names - until we threatened with legal action. (Something/ type of action unheard of in our lives). Please, contact me. How do we stop someone like this. We are spreading laughter throughout africa without as much as a trade mark. See for starters http://www.laughsa.com My name is Janine.