Parody site continues to court the attention of trademark lawyers
As Internet memes go, last week’s lampooning of the NFL over its replacement referees was intense, amusing and naturally short-lived, given the welcome return of the regular refs on Thursday night.
Our contribution here was following Erik Johnson’s “Replacement Google,” both because the parody site succeeded in mocking the stumblebum fill-ins – it attracted some half-million visitors in just a couple of days — and also because it seemed to be taunting the trademark lawyers of two multibillion-dollar companies. On the latter point, I noticed Saturday that Johnson had scrubbed the NFL logo off Replacement Google and replaced it with the logo of the National Hockey League. And the URL ReplacementGoogle.com now redirected to LockoutGoogle.com.
I sent him an email asking if these changes came at the behest of an NFL lawyer.
“No. No one has complained actually,” he replied.
I also asked why Replacement Google/Lockout Google didn’t seem to be working; you could enter a search term as with the football version but you’d no longer receive any funny returns.
“Right now, the NHL is in complete (player) lockout,” Johnson replied. “No sub-par replacements – it’s just not functioning at all. Hence, the functionality of Lockout Google.
Of course; silly question.
But won’t the National Hockey League’s trademark enforcers be dropping their gloves now?
“Similar to the NFL, I’m uncertain how the NHL will react. I just hope NHL hockey comes back soon so hockey fans like myself can enjoy it.”
He shoots, he scores!
