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Family of Trayvon Martin seeks to trademark teen’s name

Mar. 27, 2012 3:06pm Meredith Jessup

According to documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the mother of Trayvon Martin has applied to secure trademarks containing her late son’s name. Sybrina Fulton is seeking to trademark the phrases “I Am Trayvon” and “Justice for Trayvon” for use on “Digital materials, namely, CDs and DVDs featuring Trayvon Martin,” and other products:

The two applications — which cost $325 each — were filed by an Orlando, Fla., law firm representing Fulton, the Smoking Gun reports.

(Click here to see the submitted applications.)

In the wake of the news that her son had been suspended from school after traces of marijuana were found in backpack, Fulton said on Monday that people were trying to blame the victim.

“Even in death, they are still disrespecting my son, and that is a shame,” Martin’s father, Tracy, said during a press conference Monday with Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Sharpton said he expected the police would attempt to characterize Martin as a “junkie” and “demonize the victim.”

“They killed my son, and now they are trying to kill his reputation,” Martin’s mother added.

It’s unclear at this point why Fulton applied to trademark her son’s name and the news is likely to fuel criticism that Martin’s family and other outspoken supporters are trying to capitalize on his death for personal or financial gain.

In trademarking these slogans, it seems like Martin’s family is not merely trying to control how his name or image are used in the wake of the tragedy as his likeness makes its way onto posters and tee shirts. Similarly, Martin’s supporters have begun circulating George Zimmerman’s image on a tee shirt identifying the shooter as a “P*** A** CRACKER.” A photo of a Florida rapper wearing the shirt was posted on Twitter, sparking outrage among Zimmerman’s supporters.

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Comments (14)

Crazyotto
Posted on March 28, 2012 at 1:13am
DANG-IT! They beat me to it… I was in the process of lining up sponsors for a Tee-shirt / Gangsta hat line…I wonder if Zimmerman name is trademarked???

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berlet98
Posted on March 28, 2012 at 12:46am
The Trayvon Martin Bonfire

Themes of Tom Wolfe’s blockbuster 1987 novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, are being played out in real time in Sanford, Florida with the tragic death of Trayvon Martin serving as background and inspiration.

In Bonfire, white bond-trading “Master of the Universe” Sherman McCoy is falsely confused of killing a poor, black Bronx youth in a hit-and-run accident.

McCoy is arrested, hounded by the media, crooked politicians, and African-American activists into bankruptcy. He loses his family and contemplates suicide, not because of anything he actually did but because of what may best be described as a bizarre societal frenzy.

Henry Lamb, the dead victim in Bonfires, becomes the central character in a circus of political and racial dysfunction; Trayvon Martin has become the center of shameful exploitation of a young man’s unfortunate death.

Characterized by the MSM and his other supporters as an innocent, high school honors student who wouldn’t hurt a fly even though his death occurred late at night when he and a friend approached McCoy’s vehicle on a dark Bronx street in what most people would regard a threatening fashion, Lamb is all but canonized in the book as Martin has been in real life.

Neither was a saint anymore than Sherman McCoy or George Zimmerman were saintly.

Certainly, few comparisons can be drawn between the cocksure millionaire McCoy and Zimmerman, except for the comparably baseless campai

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jamestoms
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 7:34pm
Trash is trash.

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sandrunner
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 7:27pm
I can see there is no love lost from their son ( the boy has a record).
so vultures want blood money. Martin is just like his family…corrupt.

The reports are showing that Zimmerman was in the right.

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StrongViolentType
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 7:19pm
Website slogan:
Don’t bring skittles to a gunfight. or
Don’t sucker punch someone with a gun if you can’t knock em out.

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Just in time
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 6:54pm
She said ” They killed my son” Who is they? Duh which way did they go George? What she did is legal and despicable. But at least she does not have her hand out. Saying I want my Obama money.

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SuzanneL
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 4:08pm
<>

Total strangers all over the country are raking in the bucks printing T-shirts and posters with her dead son’s name on them. That’s disgusting! You BET I’d do the same as she is doing and try to get a legal handle on that to control it. Whether or not she plans to use the name herself, (perhaps to name a charitable foundation in his honor), in order to apply for a trademark, you must indicate on the application the intent to use your new trademark in the marketplace, or such a trademark will be ruled pointless and denied.

So we should get off her case. I think she is following somebody’s sound legal advice.

Report this comment
- DaveOregon
  Posted on March 27, 2012 at 9:38pm
  B.S. – she is just following Rahm’s code of not letting a crisis go to waste. ‘Course waste for her is she ain’t gettin the $$$. This woman may have be Trayvon’s biological mother – but she was not and is not “a mother”. Her boy was heading down the wrong road – gangsta wanna be – and she did not stop it. Does not matter if he was black or white or asian or hispanic – the mother dropped the ball and now wants to profit by it. Whores a whore – and she just declared herself one.
  
  Report this comment
moreteaplease
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 3:41pm
Grieving all the way to the bank. It must really be tough on her.

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AnAmericanToo
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 3:34pm
I understand that everyone grieves the loss of a loved one in different ways but I must say that in the more than 30 years I have been around survivors of violent crimes – that I have NEVER, EVER had anyone “trademark” the name of their deceased loved ones. This is just utterly amazing to me that a mother would think to file two trademarks on the name of her deceased child.

Given that she has expressed her grief with a race to the patent office to trademark her son’s name it is now open to discuss her motives in doing so. She now clearly has a financial interest and bias in presenting her son in a particular image in order to maximize any potential profits gained from the trademarks. Imagine what attorneys can do in the courtroom with this mother on the witness stand testifying about her son’s character and her financial interest in his trademarked name. She won’t be merely the ‘grieving mother’ but a ‘grieving mother with a financial interest in two trademarks’.

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- SerikFox
  Posted on March 27, 2012 at 4:52pm
  Or perhaps maybe she wants to shut down all of the people using her son’s name and life for profit? I would. Don’t jump to conclusions so easily. Take a minute to stop and think before you go off – there are many possible explanations for her actions.
  
  Report this comment
ldaopines
Posted on March 27, 2012 at 3:28pm
Notice the T-Shirt reference to “*******”. That obscures the truth that a hispanic did the shooting. You know….the voting base they’re counting on? If Zimmerman’s name was “Gonzales”, this story would have been squelched long ago, but now they are selling it as white-on-black “injustice”.

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- moreteaplease
  Posted on March 27, 2012 at 3:55pm
  Yeah, that could still turn into a tight channel for the administration to navigate.
  
  Report this comment
- YANKEESLAYER
  Posted on March 28, 2012 at 9:02am
  And why is the mainstream showing a picture of this guy when he was a little kid and not a more current pic of him in his gangsta with a grill look.
  
  Report this comment

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