Like Skynet before him, Jeremy Lin has become fully self-aware: the Knicks sudden star became business savvy this week, applying for trademark rights to "Linsanity." Lin's attorney Pam Deese confirmed it to the Huffington Post: "We're prepared to protect his intellectual property rights," she said. Does this mean ESPN will now have to start using "Chinksanity"?
Lin paid a filing fee of $1,625 on Feb. 13 to cover use of the trademarked term on all manner of apparel, including everything from underwear to action figures to beverage sleeves and backpacks. This puts Lin directly at odds with Andrew Slayton, the former Palo Alto high school basketball coach who reportedly bought the domain name Linsanity.com in 2010. But he's only been selling t-shirts and merchandise on the site for the last two weeks. "It's clear that he is trying to sell merchandise using the New York Knicks brand," trademark attorney Josh Gerben told HuffPo. "He should be very careful...Legally, he's on shaky ground."
At least one other person has tried to trademark "Linsanity"—Yenchin Chang actually applied for the trademark before Slayton. He told Bloomberg News, “I wanted to be a part of the excitement. I’m very proud of Jeremy.” We're happy that Lin wants to take control of the word, just so long as all this doesn't end up negatively affecting the other Jeremy Lin—that would be the 7-month-old tan-colored shepherd-pit bull mix who was dropped off at the East 110th Street Animal Care And Control shelter this week. He was named after Lin because he likes to dribble on his toy basketball.
