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.
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.
Mickey is a real name, though. It wasn’t invented by Disney.
Not that their lawyers would care lmao
Yeah if anyone ever expected copyright law or lawyers to be even remotely logical or sane, they’ve got another thing coming to them…
Disney just announced a new IP, Empire of Love. No relation I’m sure.
OH FUUUUUUUUUU-
This comment has been removed due to a copyright claim by Walt Disney Corporation of America
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…
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.
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
https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00917519208
HBO owns it in the UK. Weirdly, I couldn’t find an active entry in the US database.
Thanks for actually doing the research.
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?
I got half way before the pop-ups became too much.
Fair enough.
Holy shit you weren’t kidding. And I’m on Firefox Focus behind a PiHole with a multi-million blocklist.
Does the WB even own that trademark? You have to manually apply for each one. Also, trademarks are specific to commercial operations and two companies are allowed to share if they aren’t in the same business. I don’t think trademark laws even apply here.
I still believe her actual name was Hodor.
Shouldn’t they also use the same bullshit excuse when issuing an ID card? At least make the dumb rules consistent.
To be fair, ID cards aren’t common in the UK and passports are very common. This is quite probably the first time she’s applied for any form of ID. Not agreeing with it, just saying.
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.
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.
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.
A-aron?
You name it is the weirdest of them all.
Classic? Who in the right mind!
Hippies.
I once met a female stripper named Adonis.
You know the Gilmores?
There are literally people named “Princess”. Not that I think that does wonders for their life either.
The idiocy of naming your kid Khaleesi aside
It’s nice sounding as a name though, I wouldn’t be in a rush to condemn someone for it. Now when it’s the 5th “unique” spelling of Madison that starts to get a little ridiculous.
It’s a nice sounding name if you don’t know where it comes from. Considering how well known Game of Thrones is it sounds like “I’m sorry your parents are idiots.”
Fair point!
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.
But how can I be outraged then?
I am glad to hear they’re not officially taking corporate feudalism for a ride.
It seems that there is only two restrictions in the UK on naming a child at birth. That is that it must fit on a single line on the birth certificate and not contain numeric characters except things like ii to refer to the second.
If you want to change your name later in life there is a lot of restrictions but as far as I know copyright enforcement is still not one. You can find a list here if you are interested.
Regina, Adelina, Cesare, surely there are other names.
Zoltan, Rex.
Rex ~ Regina, but thanks for Zoltan, made me remember Basil by association.
EDIT: And Despina. EDIT2: There don’t seem to be many people called Despot, but Tiran (not Tigran) is a name one can sometimes encounter among Armenians.
Zoltan?
Isn’t that a race in FTL?
Used to work with a Zoltan.
Bread.
I dated a girl named Mercedes.
Mercedes is actually an old Spanish name too though.
Mercedes was the name of Emil Jellinek’s daughter, Emil has the idea to develop sports cars, he designed and commissioned cars from an engineering company and named the model-line after her.
Are you saying they should just use lojban?
Presumably they won’t get sued by IP (“intellectual property”) trolls.
Until they register in that language too
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.”
http://www.laadanlanguage.org/l2e.html
unáhizh
Fwiw, the passport office also backtracked. But now I have a new Internet rabbit hole, so thanks for that!
The kid doesn’t deserve this, but she doesn’t deserve that name either.
Second of Her Name, Rightful Queen of the Bratz Dolls, The Breaker of Bedtimes…
Nice!
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
At least Arya is a name; Khaleesi is a title
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.
Don’t care. Gonna name my firstborn Right Honourable
“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.”
most of those aren’t first names
Lemmy needs a confidentlyincorrect
Earl is a real name. However, for this one, they explain in the series that he was supposed to be named Carl like his father, but due to sloppy handwriting he ended up being named Earl
But Earl is a title, as is Carl.
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.
Smith is a profession more than a title, and is also generally a surname. I’ll give you Christopher and Rex though
Thank you for pointing this out. It drives me crazy.
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.
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
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.
Arya is a normal name though. Khaleesi was specifically made up title for GoT.
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.
Hopefully no one named their kid Dickon
Here is a list. Moon Unit is first. Child of Frank Zappa.
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.
I used to work with a guy named Pelvis. I couldn’t bring myself to ask him where the name came from lol
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
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.
Why the f is a passport office concerned with a trademark. It is a name of a child… it does not infringe.
People with the last name “Ford” in shambles
So, they passport office is concerned that WB won’t approve? ffs.
Right? Like did she have to ask WB for permission to name her kid Khaleesi? Of course not! It’s a kid’s name not a spin off series lol
But does that mean I can name my kid Walt Disney Company?
… try it out and let us know
Sure… Walter is a regular first name, and there’s lots of people with the last name Disney. It’s from “de Ysini”, and lots of people lived and live in the Ysini region. Company is from the French compagnie, from Latin companio, where we also get companion.
So “Walter of Ysini, Friend” AKA “Walt Disney Company” is a perfectly legitimate name.
As is Michael Mouse.
Excluding laws in certain places meant to protect children from a life of ridicule, you can name your child whatever you want.
The issue of trademark, which is what this article highlights, only concerns applications where there is a business conflict. For example, it is normal for an actor/musician/artist to trademark their name as their “brand,” which means I can’t just form a thrash metal band called “Taylor Swift” to profit off of some confused music listeners. And even if my legal name was Taylor Swift, I could still be required to change my “stage name” to something else when promoting myself as an artist to avoid any confusion/conflict with Tay-Tay.
Last I checked, Warner Bros is not in the passport industry, so this is a dumb argument that should never have occurred. If I had to guess, it was probably just some random disgruntled government employee who felt the need to play armchair activist and “punish” a parent because they didn’t like the name they chose for their child.
Absolutely… Will Disney likely sue you into oblivion? Most likely.
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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.
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.
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.
It’s almost like people should know how their job works
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.
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.
Most places I’ve worked had incompetent workers. Every state and government agency I’ve ever worked for was made primarily of incompetent workers
“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.
If not, he can hang in trademark prison with Chalupa Batman.
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?
dammit which XKCD was it
You know I had it ready.
Reminds me of this.
I’ll recommend my father, Doritos Locos Tacos, who’s a lawyer.
This is their fault for not checking the username db first. Should’ve tried xXx_khaleesi_xXx instead
omw to change my name to ’ AND id IS NULL; –
Good old Bobby Tables
the initial application to get her daughter, Khaleesi, 6, a passport was denied — with officials telling her she needed Warner Brothers’ approval because it owns the name’s trademark.
This is a lot dumber than I thought. Yes, Khaleesi is a stupid name but it is their official name on government papers. They’re seriously telling her “your daughter can’t use her legal name without permission from Warner Brothers”?
God help anyone with the last name McDonald!
Old Mc*onald gonna need to lawyer up
IAIA … ooh
Or in this case IA IA IANAL
Old McDonald did WHAT NOW!?!
IANAL - “I am not a lawyer” common abbreviation on message boards
Yeah, I know, I was just making a joke =P Thank you for the clarification though! My joke wasnt clear enough that it was a joje!
If you bothered to read the rest of the article, you’d know they made a mistake, and later apologised for it.
They still said it. Someone was dumb enough to tell her that in the first place even if it was later corrected.
I don’t know, this level of not knowing what your job is kinda goes past oops sorry.
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.
That’s a cool name
It’s the Name for a New Generation
I love you too, Pepsi.
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It’s not, and the article clearly says it’s not.
I don’t understand why the Passport Office would have even looked.
The name Wendy didn’t exist until the book Peterpan. Every part of language is made up, even the names.
That’s just not so. J.M. Barrie’s book popularized Wendy as a girls name, but it predates the book by centuries.
oh man that’s crazy. I always thought it was short for Gwendolyn.
What about Bread?
No, Bread has always been.
Only it being sliced is new
Yeah but it’s also the parents responsibility to give their child a non stupid name that won’t get them ridiculed their whole life.
Parents being quirky with names is how you end up with kids getting bullied forever.
Edit: Glad to see all the people who weren’t bullied downvoting this. My name isn’t even that weird and I still get made fun of for it. Don’t give your kids stupid names.
Sorry it was so difficult for you.
Life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue
I mean I don’t even have that odd of a name but even in adulthood it’s made fun of occasionally.
I can only imagine someone named after some fantasy story.
Some fantasy story that everybody hates now.
Hey, maybe realise by your experience that it isn’t the name but shitty people.
That’s half of my whole point 💀
Shit people exist. It’s hard enough when everything’s normal.
Imagine how much worse it would be for some kid with a name that’s actually weird not just slightly.
So why are we letting kids do that?
Have you ever dealt with a bully’s parents? Have you ever even dealt with a bully?
Schools tend to favor bullies. Mainly because their parents are fucking crazy and will threaten all kinds of shit and most normal people don’t want to deal with that.
Kids will make fun of any name. My name is common in the area of the world I am from, and they bullied me with my name.
Fuck off with this shit that the name is the problem, kids probably just decided to bully because they are terrible little shits whise parents either don’t care, or encourage them.
My point is kids are going to be shitheads regardless. Why would you give them a perfect target?
If your kid is a shithead, there is only one place to place the blame, and its not the kid.
Tell that to the parents who let their kids do whatever they want and will completely flip their shit if anyone dares threaten their “perfect little angel”
To everyone else don’t set your kids up for failure.
Hey, thanks for elaborating on my point.
Because its the parents that I was pointing the finger at.
This is the same argument used in the UK to justify school uniforms. That kids would get bullied over their clothes, so let’s just make everyone wear the same thing. I’m wondering how you feel about that
Agreed on all fronts. Don’t be a cruel parent and give your kid a fucked up name. If you can’t find it on the keychain turnstile in a truck stop, your “cute” name for a kid is causing more trouble than it’s worth.
I have a misspelled common name (and it’s a common misspelling) and every call for every account in my whole life is a PITA.
You aren’t clever or cute, don’t fuck up your kid’s name. Color your hair blue and you be unique, leave your poor child alone, dipshit.
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.
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.
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?
I can and have voted since. The passport office was just on something
This is what congress people are for.
In case anyone else wanted to save a click, daughters name is Khaleesi and it was denied because “Warner brothers trademark”
The people involved with this bullshit should be sacked. Typical power-tripping idiots.
Can’t see anything wrong with calling your child after your favorite character
Well, for starters the character’s name isn’t even Khaleesi.
Tell that to Jorah.
The knight who refers to his noble ruler by her title? I’m pretty sure he knows her name.
That’s it, I’m naming my kid Norman Bates
Mom especially
I mean, I don’t think she technically did anything wrong but I really wish she wouldn’t have.
