Posted 3 minutes agoThese 13 Celebrities Tried To Trademark Their Catchphrases, But The Law Said "Nope" To Some Of ThemI was genuinely surprised by who got rejected.by Arsheen Kaur SahniBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink I LOVE using iconic lines and catchphrases that celebrities have dropped over the years. Don't get me wrong, I can come up with some wild ones on my own (100%), but if you show me a screenshot of someone absolutely owning an online bully in the comments, there's a 99.9999% chance my response will be "Okurrrr." The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon / Via giphy.com That said, celebrities are slowly realizing that some of their most famous lines are just too good not to protect. Take Matthew McConaughey, for example, that "alright, alright, alright" in his unmistakable Texas drawl, which you might want to be a little careful with now since it's been trademarked. Giphy / Via giphy.com But his reason isn't about merch or branding in the usual sense. The Oscar winner has trademarked his image and voice to stop them from being used without permission by artificial intelligence platforms. Clips featuring his famous line from Dazed and Confused have been officially registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. So, with all that in mind, here are 13 other celebrities (and a politician, wait for it) who loved their catchphrases enough to lock them down legally, or at least tried to, because if a line becomes part of pop culture, there's always someone else ready to cash in on it. 1. "That's hot" by Paris Hilton - Trademarked Giphy / Via giphy.com This phrase has carried an entire generation, and I say it because I am from that generation. Paris Hilton turned this line into a pop-culture staple on The Simple Life, and then did the very on-brand thing by legally locking it down. She went on to secure multiple trademarks for the phrase-covering men's and women's clothing, electronic devices, and even alcoholic beverages.
She didn't stop there. In 2007, Hilton sued Hallmark for using the phrase along with her image on a greeting card, and won, setting a pretty big precedent for celebrity catchphrases. 2. "The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now" by Taylor Swift - Trademarked Giphy / Via giphy.com Taylor Swift is one of the most strategic celebrities when it comes to trademarks. Over the years, she's filed for dozens of them, mostly tied to lyrics, album titles, and phrases fans immediately associate with her music. Her team filed trademark applications for the phrase "The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now" around the time her Reputation era kicked off in 2017, shortly after the song Look What You Made Me Do was released in August of that year. That's when multiple filings were submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to protect that line for use on merch and other products tied to the album and its branding. Stay with me, because there is another Taylor Swift line that will pop up again further down the list! 3. "Okurrrr" by Cardi B - Not trademarked The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon / Via giphy.com When Cardi B's signature "okurrr" took over comment sections, reaction videos, and basically the entire internet, trademark paperwork was bound to follow. In March 2019, she applied to trademark the phrase through her company, Washpoppin, Inc. But the attempt didn't stick. The application was ultimately denied, with officials ruling that "okurrr" was already a widely used expression. 4. "Let's get ready to rumble!" by Michael Buffer - Trademarked Giphy / Via giphy.com When Michael Buffer first rolled this out in the '80s, it probably didn't feel like a future goldmine. But after trademarking the line in 1992, it turned into exactly that. The phrase has since popped up everywhere-from movies and ads to video games-and reportedly made him hundreds of millions along the way, which just proves that sometimes saying the right thing at the right moment can change everything! 5. "Rise and shine" by Kylie Jenner - Not trademarked Giphy / Via giphy.com When Kylie Jenner casually sang "rise and shine" while waking up her daughter on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the internet did what it does best and turned it into a full-blown meme (guilty). Naturally, Kylie moved fast and filed to trademark the phrase for use on merchandise like clothing and accessories.
You can bet she probably had a whole list of products ready to go with the phrase slapped on them, but it didn't quite play out the way she hoped. The trademark application was eventually abandoned, mostly because "rise and shine" was ruled too common to belong to just one person. 6. "Sliving" by Paris Hilton - Trademarked TalkShopLive / Via giphy.com What, you honestly thought I'll only have one in the list by Ms. Paris Hilton? That's funny. She officially locked down "sliving" on March 5, 2020, the word she coined by mashing slaying and living your best l