Sony's "Let's Play" Trademark Attempt Foiled By Another Company

Let's Plays have been around for some time now. If you're not familiar, a Let's Play is where someone records themselves playing a game, adds commentary, and uploads it to someplace like YouTube. These can be a great way to learn about a game, or just entertain yourself for a couple of hours. And since it's a term that's not company or brand-specific, Sony thought it was about time that they went ahead and trademarked the term "Let's Play."

That's right, thousands upon thousands of videos already use the term "Let's Play." And yet Sony (specifically Sony Computer Entertainment of America) filed for a trademark on the term. Thankfully, the US Patent and Trademark office shot down the application, but not because it was already so widely used.

Rather, they rejected it due to how similar it is to another filing, for "Let'z Play of America." The Georgia-based company is said to connect video gamers with online and offline events. Unfortunately, checking their Facebook and Google+ pages yields almost nothing, and even their website is showing an error. So it would seem they're not doing a very good job at connecting people to anything.

It's interesting to see someone like Sony try to trademark such a widely-used term. One would hope that it would have still been rejected, even if the other company didn't exist. But one wonders just what Sony might have done, if they had been granted the trademark. We've reached out to Sony, to see if they have any comments on the topic.

VIA: Polygon