Let’s play? More like “Let’s Play™,” if Sony has their way. The maker of PlayStation has filed for a trademark on the gaming term.

Let’s Play, in case you’re completely out of the loop, is what a lot of YouTubers title their campaigns through games. Let’s Play Super Mario Bros., for instance, would be an episodic series featuring one player tackling the NES classic with commentary.

They’re huge in gaming, and the amount of videos with the headline is insane.

Sony filed the Word Mark “LET’S PLAY” in late October. Its most recent status update happened on December 29, 2015 when a “non-final action” was emailed. What does that mean? It means the official examiner found issues with the trademark and kicked it back to Sony.

More than likely, “Let’s Play” is too common of a term to be trademarked. Still, it’s amazing that Sony even tried.

https://trademarks.justia.com/868/01/let-s-86801899.html

That's just idiotic, what would that even do for them if they had the word trademarked? Would they actually restrict who could use it or whether or not they had to get paid to use it? That's dumb, and would probably end a lot of channels too because it isn't just a word, it's technically the entire genre of YouTube. I hope they don't get it in the long run.

This reminds me of when King (the company responsible for the mobile money-cow that is Candy Crush Saga and its five identical counterparts) was filing for a trademark of the word..."Candy."

Seriously, some companies just get far too greedy. A term like "Let's Play" being trademarked is, as zander already put it, idiotic, and would end the entirety of small-time YouTubers who haven't yet made a name as Let's Players.

I can understand people or companies trademarking things they invented. This is just ridiculous, it's not even something Sony has been involved with.

Sony would do best in focusing on their consoles rather than on stupid things like this one. If they want more money, then you better have the fans pleased instead of searching for bizarre ways to increase your income.

*Slow clap*

Wow. Just...wow.

I'm a huge PlayStation (and Sony in general) fan, but this is silly guys. Don't try to take such an important term used so widely among gamers and trademark it. I mean I trust they would do more than pull a Nintendo *ahem* and force everyone to pull their videos down, but still the term is being used too widely to try to slap a trademark on. Why not come up with something similar like "Let's Game" or something? Fanboy or not, I can recognize a dumb move when I see one. *stares at PSVR and the sacrificed Vita and pile of cash next to it*

I guess they are looking for a new slogan.

R U E  (Red E...get it?) was their slogan back in the 90s and I dunno if they had something similar to date.



Let's Game sounds weird...

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This is beyond greedy. They, like the Candy Crush dorks, want to trademark words they have nothing to do with in order to make some more money.
What are they even going to do with this trademark anyway? Get every Let's Play that doesn't give them all their ad revenue shut down? Shut down all Let's plays? Or do the former; but allowing only Let's Play's of Sony's games that portray their games in a good light to be uploaded?

This is ridiculous

A user of this : Whoa, if they pulled that last thing you said, they'd be FAR worse than even Nintendo was over the situation...!

I don't agree that they'd be as bad as Nintendo concerning this, but going after that trademark is a very scary thing.

Ugh.It's so obvious that's the only reason Sony even tried to trademark it.Just like Nintendo's Youtube cash-in attempt, they just wanted to get the trademark and sue the fudge out of any LPer they either didn't like, or who LPed a game they didn't like.The nerve of some people.

This always happens when an industry is monopolized. The dominant companies always get too big for their britches. All they need is some competition to shake it up a little. Hmm..... Wasn't there another competing company that released consoles back in the old days...? I think it started with an S.... Maybe they should make a return to the home console scene.

Sony should not use the term lets play because Sony never used the term lets play in there confrences and adverts.

Spidey243 : While I won't deny that's a possibility, it doesn't seem likely to me. Sony may be a big company in the industry but at current they seem to fully understand why they're doing so well, and that's because they're treating their customers well. As such I don't think they would make such a mistake as to sue gamers for gaming. The difference between them and Nintendo in this is that Nintendo sues you for playing their games online without paying them while PlayStation has practically begged you from day one to upload gameplay videos for free even going so far as to build the system, controller, and operating system of the PS4 around sharing pictures and videos. They would be sabotaging their system to go all gung ho and try to kill sharing like Nintendo did. Besides, uploading screenshots and videos has been a huge part of their main sales pitch with the PS4 since day one.

But I definitely agree that trying to trademark the term was a bad idea because if nothing else it sounds bad. But let's not villainize them just yet. Let them do that to themselves first. If they prove to be creeps, then we can all rally about it. Until then let's give them the benefit of a doubt. Thay've proven themselves for now.

m0ssb3rg935 : I dunno if you can call it a monopoly, that would mean they are the only option... they are definitely a large and powerful company though.

Vanelan : Well, I was referring to there basically being only 3 options.  I really like the concept of the Steam Machine, but for not a whole lot more, you could have a full PC, and not everything gets a Steam release.

m0ssb3rg935 : The steam machines aren't anything special.
They are just gaming PCs (I use that term loosely since it Alienware *bleh*) with the awful steamOS.
You are definitely better off getting a regular PC.

Eirinn : Yeah, I guess I jumped the gun a bit.And I actually like Sony.It's just, things like this happen so many times I immediately assume the worst when a company like this attempts something like that.But, your right.We don't know that was the reason.Although, hopefully, Sony won't try something that stupid any time soon.

Spidey243 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
Vanelan :
someguy99 :
SWTerra :
Sonicolmstead :
A user of this :
EX Palen :
zanderlex :
goku123 -
If anyone has yet to hear it, this has been officially denied due to a "likliness of confusion". It was too similar to another trademarked term "Let'z Play" or something like that.

Eirinn : Good to know. I was planning on doing some playthroughs of some ps2 games once I get a capture card, so that works for me. My initial thought was that Sony was doing this to try and pull a Nintendo, but after thinking on it for a while, it was probably just wasn't thought through. Still, you would think that, being that we basically made them by wasting our lives playing there products, they would be at least a little more in touch with us. Seriously Sony, use some logic....