Thiemos Archiv

About five days later, they got it. But still: really? What exactly were they trying to trademark? They repeatedly said the »do not own the genre«, but want to license »the React format«. What was this supposed to mean?

Here is the thing: The brothers talked like »react« is the distinct name of their series. Like everybody using a term like »react video« can not avoid but automatically think of their channel. And yea, this was perfectly true in the world they were living in. For me, this is the only possible explanation why it took them almost a week to take down an announcement with such an ridiculous amount of negative response. They lived in a sphere. The past five years the brothers did nothing but working on their YouTube career, and called it »React«. But the world outside of their sphere continued to make react videos and could not care less that there was a channel with that name. There was no reason to look at them as enemies. All was good. The channel provided exactly what a channel with that name should, but other YouTubers could also ignore it and do their own thing (well, almost, Fullscreen Inc., the network behind the Fine Brothers took down some videos, which was all a mistake, as they say now).

The lesson the brothers now learned? They failed to build a brand. All they have is the word »React«. They even have a series called »Gaming«, and an other one called »Opinions«. That's as generic as it could be. This is naming your business after a genre. And no, as the two always correctly stated, nobody can trademark a genre. I can see how the Fine Brothers' generic video titles are good for YouTube's ranking algorithms and their overall success, but actually trademarking the word »React«? #wtf? Really, what exactly did you wanted to trademark, guys? You never explained that. You used vague comparisons like Britain's Got Talent and Burger King. Could it really be that you have not seen the issue with that? Saying you are going to trademark »the React format« is not identical to trademarking »Britain's Got Talent« or »the Burger King concept«. Who made you believe that? You should sue him. Going to trademark »the React format« is like somebody trademarking »the talent show format« or »the fast food restaurant concept«.

That »React World« story (it did not took long for the term #reactgate to show up) would have been very different if they would not have been announced it with absolute marketing bullshit like »now everybody can make react videos«, like this was not possible before, but with what it really meant: If you want to legally use the logos, sounds and overall style of any of the Fine Brothers videos, plus you want to be promoted in a way they never explained, you are free to do this, and all they want is a 20 % 40 % share of your ad revenue.

No matter what they say, what they did was exactly that: They tried to trademark a genre. But did it in the wrong place: the internet.