Well, we sure don't know whether to be shocked or awed - but a day after U.S. coalition forces began their plunge into Iraq, Sony made its move on trademarking "shock and awe," the catchphrase for the war, as a title for a video game, says a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing reported by the Associated Press.
Dated March 21, England's Media Guardian publication discovered the application, though it wasn't clear whether Sony actually planned to use the name just yet. The AP said Sony Computer Entertainment didn't answer calls for clarification from the news agency.
Not that Sony was the only company looking for the shock and awe of profit from the catchphrase - the patent office told the AP they have over a dozen recent applications for using the phrase, from fireworks and lingerie to baby toys and shampoo. An Irving, Texas plumbing detailer, Michael Knight, has even applied to use "Shock and Awe" as a trademark for pesticides and herbicides, the AP said.
"I interviewed family and friends and strangers, and they all thought it would be a great name for a product like that," Knight told the AP. "Not one has said it would be a bad name."
And "shock and awe" isn't the only war catchphrase to attract prospective trademark hawks - Battlefront.com, Inc., who make computer strategy games, want to trademark "Operation Iraqi Freedom," the AP said, with a company Website statement saying it, too, had no immediate plans to put out a game by that name - and might never even use it, since they think the name is "a bit corny."
