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Badeendje ,
@Badeendje@lemmy.world avatar

Why the f is a passport office concerned with a trademark. It is a name of a child… it does not infringe.

A_Very_Big_Fan ,

People with the last name “Ford” in shambles

Maggoty , (edited )

The idiocy of naming your kid Khaleesi aside, the UK just decided that a corporation can own your name and prevent you from enjoying the rights of your citizenship.

That’s pretty fucked.

Edit - Apparently they did backtrack. But it’s still amazing that anyone even thought that was a thing.

DMBFFF ,
@DMBFFF@lemmy.world avatar

“queen” in Lojban is “nolraitruti’u.”

mw.lojban.org/…/me_lu_ju'i_lobypli_li'u_18_moi

😁🙂

Maggoty ,

Are you saying they should just use lojban?

DMBFFF ,
@DMBFFF@lemmy.world avatar

Presumably they won’t get sued by IP (“intellectual property”) trolls.

Maggoty ,

Until they register in that language too

DMBFFF ,
@DMBFFF@lemmy.world avatar

Perhaps you’re correct.

I tried looking into copyright status of Lojban and found nothing.

I’m pretty sure wp:Láadan was released into the public domain.

Láadan word for “queen.”

www.laadanlanguage.org/l2e.html

unáhizh

Maggoty ,

Fwiw, the passport office also backtracked. But now I have a new Internet rabbit hole, so thanks for that!

Ilovethebomb ,

The Passport Office reportedly later called Lucy to apologize for the error.

No, they can’t. That’s not how copyright works. Read the damn article.

Maggoty ,

But how can I be outraged then?

I am glad to hear they’re not officially taking corporate feudalism for a ride.

mechoman444 ,

Khaleesi is a nice name aside from the fact that I think it’s a title…

Khaleesi is a title, not a name. In the fictional world of “Game of Thrones,” it means “queen” in the Dothraki language and is given to the wife of a Khal, the leader of a Dothraki tribe. The character Daenerys Targaryen is often referred to as Khaleesi. - chat gpt

Ya… It’s a title.

radicalautonomy ,
@radicalautonomy@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve had students named Happy, Classic, Diamonds, Epiphany, Scorpio, you name it. I wouldn’t even cock my head to the side with a Khaleesi on my roll sheet at this point.

SomethingBurger ,

Khaleesi, 6, a passport was denied — with officials telling her she needed Warner Brothers’ approval because it owns the name’s trademark.

Typical capitalist brain rot.

Shouldn’t they also use the same bullshit excuse when issuing an ID card? At least make the dumb rules consistent.

leftzero ,

Aren’t they aware that the TV series is based on a book series…? If anyone owns the name it’d be George R.R. Martin…

candybrie , (edited )

Did he trademark it? Did he sign that away when HBO did the TV series?

Not that it matters for a passport. But it’s entirely likely a media company owns the trademark for a book character rather than the author.

Cort ,

I think it would be more likely that grrm licensed the trademark and IP to HBO/Discovery rather than sell it. But I don’t actually know

candybrie ,

trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/…/UK00917519208

HBO owns it in the UK. Weirdly, I couldn’t find an active entry in the US database.

Cort ,

Thanks for actually doing the research.

empireOfLove2 ,
@empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

By this logic, everyone named Mickey should be paying Disney a royalty…

Wait shit retract delete delete DISNEY I DID JOT SAY ANYTHING DONT GET ANY FUCKING IDEAS NOW.

SomethingBurger ,

Mickey is a real name, though. It wasn’t invented by Disney.

Not that their lawyers would care lmao

Maggoty ,

Disney just announced a new IP, Empire of Love. No relation I’m sure.

bradorsomething ,

I still believe her actual name was Hodor.

Ilovethebomb ,

The Passport Office reportedly later called Lucy to apologize for the error.

They screwed up, and have admitted they screwed up. Did nobody read the article?

woelkchen ,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

“I never thought you could trademark a name,” she added.

I hope my son Marvel’s The Amazing Spider-Man is not going to get in trouble.

MelodiousFunk ,

If not, he can hang in trademark prison with Chalupa Batman.

Wasabi ,

Reminds me of this.

Maggoty ,

I just want to know why I got 5 guys in suits and trenchcoats visiting me after I applied for a passport for my kid, Bobby Drop Tables?

superminerJG ,

dammit which XKCD was it

weariedfae ,

As the article states this is bullshit and who knows what the person who denied her passport was thinking.

I’ve met someone whose legal name was Pepsi and she was able to get regular government documents without contacting PepsiCo.

It’s unfortunate this mom had to go to a lawyer for this crap.

Belgdore ,

I assume it’s some weird UK IP law thing.

Ilovethebomb ,

It’s not, and the article clearly says it’s not.

paraphrand ,

That’s a cool name

MrJameGumb OP ,
@MrJameGumb@lemmy.world avatar

It’s the Name for a New Generation

wolfeh ,
@wolfeh@lemmy.world avatar

I love you too, Pepsi.

alcoholicorn ,

The Passport Office reportedly later called Lucy to apologize for the error. While officials said they’d now be able to process little Khaleesi’s passport, Lucy said she believes the problem was only solved because she complained on social media.

Sounds like the passport office didn’t understand how trademark works.

JCreazy ,

It’s almost like people should know how their job works

GlenRambo ,

Doubt the “whole office” was even involved. More likely it was one incompetent employee. We’ve all been there. It depends on who answers your call as to what answer you get.

wjrii ,

Yup. This is the boring but likely true response. You get the one Gareth/Dwight who remembers that memo about not using trademarks in marketing materials and decides they know how this all works and that the rights of Warner Brothers have to be respected before putting their intellectual property on a published document. “Just get the appropriate permission on corporate letterhead and notarized, and this will all be fine.”

Social media is one way to fix it, but I tend to think a couple of layers of escalation would have worked as well, if a bit more slowly.

linearchaos ,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

The government’s not real good about hiring the best pick for each position. Irregularly run into people who have no clue how to actually run their job, and there’s little to no consequences to f****** people’s lives up by doing it incorrectly.

alcoholicorn ,

That’s hardly specific to the government. A couple years ago, Hertz falsely reported 364 customers for grand theft auto. Some of them went to jail.

linearchaos ,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

Most places I’ve worked had incompetent workers. Every state and government agency I’ve ever worked for was made primarily of incompetent workers

DMBFFF ,
@DMBFFF@lemmy.world avatar

1a. Folks, before you name your children, don’t make it easy for the big corporations to sue you. Those who “own” (i.e. use the government to suppress your right to free speech) a conlang, be it Dothraki, Klingon, or Tolkien’s language care far more about profit than culture.

​

2b. wp:Dothraki language

In 2012, 146 newborn girls in the United States were named “Khaleesi”, the Dothraki term for the wife of a khal or ruler, and the title adopted in the series by Daenerys Targaryen.[3]

​

3c. wt:kalisi

Noun

kalisi (n class, plural kalisi)

Alternative form of kalisiamu

wt:kalisiamu:Swahili

Etymology

Borrowed from English calcium.

SexualPolytope ,
@SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

The people involved with this bullshit should be sacked. Typical power-tripping idiots.

humbletightband ,

Can’t see anything wrong with calling your child after your favorite character

TheLowestStone ,
@TheLowestStone@lemmy.world avatar

Well, for starters the character’s name isn’t even Khaleesi.

Nuke_the_whales ,

That’s it, I’m naming my kid Norman Bates

Nuke_the_whales ,

Mom especially

linearchaos ,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

I mean, I don’t think she technically did anything wrong but I really wish she wouldn’t have.

BoxOfFeet ,

There should be a list of approved names for children.

Flax_vert ,

No.

MrJameGumb OP ,
@MrJameGumb@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I hear that’s worked out really well in North Korea 🤣

sunzu ,

Who decides what goes on that list?

BoxOfFeet ,

In a perfect world, me. But it would probably be better if there was a body of 100 or so individuals of diverse backgrounds to make sure we aren’t excluding names for cultural reasons. Names could be submitted for approval. To weed out the Everleighs, the Sexiannas, the Khaleesis. And any names Jamie Oliver would pick.

I don’t know why people think it is acceptable to treat names like an opportunity for creativity, or fun. Names are serious business. And they aren’t a medium for self expression. If I name my dog after a type of pasta, who cares? But imagine having to give someone a business card with “Fusilli Feet” on it. I love Waterworld, but my kid will never have to put down “Mariner Feet” on a resume. My kid is not an extension of me, or my interests.

MrJameGumb OP ,
@MrJameGumb@lemmy.world avatar

The only issue here is that it means no one would ever be able to come up with new names. Like not even respectable sounding ones. Even odd sounding family names would be out. The price of freedom is that occasionally some poor kid gets named Optimus Prime von Hammerpants

rikudou ,

We have that in my country, kinda. Any common name in the calendar can be chosen automatically. Any other name must be approved and you must prove that it’s a real name somewhere (used significantly, one person with a weird name wouldn’t count).

huquad ,

This is their fault for not checking the username db first. Should’ve tried xXx_khaleesi_xXx instead

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Are they worried that this 6 year old is stealing the identity of a fictional character? 🤨

Xenny ,

What’s wrong with passport offices? Here in the states I tried to get my passport in my teen years. I filled all the paperwork paid for it and everything when it came time to get the passport they were just like"you don’t exist your social security number isn’t real" and that’s b******* since my mom had been literally filing taxes with that number as a dependent my entire life. The passport office said tough s*** fax me all your ID information maybe we can do something. So I literally hooked up a fax machine in 2014 and sent everything off but still nothing.

Tl;Dr US passport office told me I’m not a person and took my money anyway.

Birbatron ,

I’m not familiar with how voting works in America but like…

Can you vote? I mean it thinks you’re not a person, can non-people vote?

Xenny ,

I can and have voted since. The passport office was just on something

APassenger ,

This is what congress people are for.

Maggoty ,

A. Call your Congress critter. Part of their job is tracking stuff like this down.

B. Go check with SSA immediately. That can be a big problem later.

ColeSloth ,

You named your daughter after a tv/book character famous for getting naked, railed, being a bit nuts, and losing a war? I guess she OG owned some dragons for a while. Destined to be bad ass destroy all mega lizards before season 8 destroyed an entire series.

ArbitraryValue ,

The kid doesn’t deserve this, but she doesn’t deserve that name either.

MrJameGumb OP ,
@MrJameGumb@lemmy.world avatar

I’m pretty sure we’re going to keep hearing about people with Game of Thrones names a lot over the next few decades lol I know I’ve read a few articles saying that Arya and Khaleesi were the most popular girls names for a few years before the series ended

AmidFuror ,

Within the US, "Arya" peaked for baby girls at rank 92 in 2019. 3050 girls or 0.166% of female births were given the name.

"Khaleesi" peaked in 2018 at rank 550 and 0.030% of female births.

I'm assuming other spellings were less common.

Revan343 ,

At least Arya is a name; Khaleesi is a title

DragonTypeWyvern ,

So is Christ, and therefore Christine and Christopher. Or Rex. Or Duke… Or Earl… Or Lady… Or Baron.

Bishop.

Pope.

Smith.

I’m sure there are more.

herrvogel ,

Don’t care. Gonna name my firstborn Right Honourable

Jerkface ,

“Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.”

FiskFisk33 ,

most of those aren’t first names

Zorque ,

The last three, maybe (though I’m sure you could find someone with at least one of those as a first name), but everything before that are used at least irregularly.

elxeno ,

earl

DragonTypeWyvern ,

Lemmy needs a confidentlyincorrect

Revan343 ,

Smith is a profession more than a title, and is also generally a surname. I’ll give you Christopher and Rex though

wjrii ,

At least Arya doesn’t go full speedrun genocidal maniac because the showrunners are bored and think they have Star Wars money coming.

Never name your kid or your dog after a character until the who is over, folks! Cats? It’s fine.

Revan343 ,

I disagree, as cats are longer lived than dogs; wanna give your dog a stupid name, go for it

This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I have three cats and zero dogs

wjrii ,

LOL, it’s more that I’m less concerned finding out a cat is named after a woman who just wanted to watch the world burn, and I presume the cat would be too.

TheLowestStone ,
@TheLowestStone@lemmy.world avatar

Thank you for pointing this out. It drives me crazy.

DarkThoughts ,

Arya is a normal name though. Khaleesi was specifically made up title for GoT.

RedWeasel ,

At least Khaleesi sounds pretty normal still. I’ve heard about people naming their kids with names they basically made up so their kid’s is unique or really weird names otherwise. Unfortunately here in the states you’ll hear about some that have named their kid after Adolf and other worse choices.

MrJameGumb OP ,
@MrJameGumb@lemmy.world avatar

Hopefully no one named their kid Dickon

RedWeasel ,

Here is a list. Moon Unit is first. Child of Frank Zappa.

List of weird name

MrJameGumb OP ,
@MrJameGumb@lemmy.world avatar

I used to work with a guy named Pelvis. I couldn’t bring myself to ask him where the name came from lol

Revan343 ,

Well with a dad with a name like Frank Zappa, you get what you get and hope for the best.

Could be worse, kid could be named Khaleesi

scytale ,

Zappa’s kids are fine since they’re children of a famous person (not to mention talented in their own right) and have the privilege of not having to live like a normal person with a weird name.

wesker ,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Second of Her Name, Rightful Queen of the Bratz Dolls, The Breaker of Bedtimes…

Badeendje ,
@Badeendje@lemmy.world avatar

Nice!

Flax_vert ,

Worth mentioning that the UK and Ireland is the easiest country to change your name in. All you need is two friends and a printer. Although it may be more complicated for children, especially if the parents aren’t together (I still think it’s pretty straightforward if they are together, just both parents need to approve it as well)

CheeseNoodle ,

Realistically you also need 35 quid to have your drivers license re-issued which you can then use as an initial form of ID to get everything else changed.

Flax_vert ,

This is about a passport application, you don’t need to use a driving licence for that

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