Fine Bros aren't going to run around taking down videos

Its not WHAT they've done that's bullshit, its WHO THEY ARE that makes it bullshit.

Whether or not a phrase is common isn't the issue. Lots of super popular, well known company mottos, taglines, slogans, etc are both common and trademarked. In fact most of the good ones ARE sort of common (or become common) because they're easy to remember. What about Nike "just do it", Apple "Think Different", McDonalds "I'm lovin' it"...

You and many others seem to keep making this argument that you can't trademark "X reacts to Y" because its far too common or vague, but I expect you wouldn't feel the same way if someone used Nike's "just do it" slogan even though its the same principle. Let's say I'm a brewer (personal fantasy right there), and on my product - every can - it says "Bozwald's Beer. Just do it." with a check mark next to it. If Nike cared to take up the case, I would expect they would win. It's a simple phrase, common, but you know full well what I'm playing off of with that slogan. It's the common sense rule.

What makes this YouTube thing bullshit is that THEY are doing this. To sue somebody or remove their content, whatever the case may be, based on a common phrase certainly feels like huge bullshit if its by somebody relatively unknown. After all, in the brewery example, it wouldn't seem that out of line because Nike and the slogan are ubiquitous - it's fucking everywhere - everybody get's what you're riffing off. To me, the "X reacts to Y" only seems like bullshit because I have honestly never even heard of these clowns before. If I watched a random video under that name, and it wasn't a FineBros video, I would have no idea - because I don't know that the "real McCoy" is in the first place...

Of course... having started ranting... these dudes have 14 million subscribers?! They ARE the Nike of YouTube videos. They are the gold standard of that type of video - it actually is starting to make sense and seem pretty reasonable. As a search term "X reacts to Y" has been made hugely popular by them and their content. Bottom feeders could easily try to steal the search term to make a quick buck and put out shitty content. I don't get the sense that they are trying to block specific reaction videos (i.e. "my brother reacts to me putting a snake in his boots", or "grandma reacts to grandson's first words" - specific reactions) but to general terms (i.e. "kids react to politicians" or something like that). In that case, I think they have a right to try to protect their brand.

/r/videos Thread Parent Link - streamable.com