I, for one, welcome our new ant farm overlords

Turns out that the good people at Uncle Milton Industries, Inc. didn't look too kindly on our gross misuse of the phrase "ant farm" on yesterday's post about the Antquarium. Apparently they own the trademark on "ant farm", and are requesting we stop using it in relation to anything except Uncle Milton products. Here's their missive, with names redacted, in full:

Name: Steve XXXXXX
URL: www.unclemilton.com
Subject: "Ant Farm" trademark usage
Hello there,
Our company, Uncle Milton Industries, Inc. is the owner of the registered trademark, "Ant Farm(R)" for our brand of ant habitat products. The phrase is not generic. We note the use of our trademark to describe a competitor's product in your website page noted above, as well as in the "Antquarium" page referenced on your site.
We request that you delete the phrase "ant farm" and substitute it with a generic phrase, such as "ant habitat."
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. A prompt reply to this request will be much appreciated.

We know you guys are required to send out these letters to defend the trademark, but we still won't be deleting the phrase from the post. Thanks for playing!

[Parker @ Jan 25th 2007 3:15PM]

So Uncle Milton's word is law? There's no legal mandate for Engadget to comply. I think it's been made pretty clear in this thread that the company is "protecting its trademark" but has no authority over Engadget and the words it uses in its articles. Refusing to change the original article doesn't make this site any less law-abiding.

[Jugomugo @ Jan 25th 2007 12:07PM]

Good for you.

I highly doubt Uncle Milton Industries (Uncle Milton?) has the coffers to sue a site such as Engadget for copyright violations.

Sheesh.

[therpham @ Jan 25th 2007 12:11PM]

That's like saying "Don't call a tissue a Kleenex" or "Don't call a soda a Coke" or "Don't call a Dumpster a Dumpster."

Everyone does it anyway. (Well, not everyone, but you get the point.)

[Tim UF @ Jan 25th 2007 1:35PM]

Its Garbage RECEPTICLE!! GOSH!

heh

[Jean D @ Jan 26th 2007 9:01AM]

Yeah, its not a Q-tip, its a Cotton Swab.

Genericized trademark @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark

I could've sworn there was a specific word describing Genericized Trademark

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Jan 25th 2007 12:13PM]

Uncle Milton has already benefited. I had no idea this company existed before. Now, I know. Heck, I even checked their Web site. Now, they will be exposed to millions (?) of Engadget readers... As they say, there is no bad publicity.

[Ulrich @ Jan 25th 2007 12:14PM]

Someone should register a trademark for the phrase "Registered Trademark." Hilarity will ensue!

[Todd @ Jan 25th 2007 12:14PM]

I have forwarded this post to the legal department at Universal Music, home the music group Alien ANT FARM.

"Let's get ready to rumble!....."

[Scott @ Mar 9th 2007 5:48PM]

Of course, "Let's get ready to rumble" is copyrighted by that announcer guy.

[CowboyGA @ Jan 25th 2007 12:14PM]

Okay posters, remember that Uncle Milty has does have to send out these things to prevent their trademark from becoming a generic term for competitors to use freely.
It's probably a good thing they're sending these out, 'cause while I know "You're fired" and "i-anything" are trademarked, "Ant farm" is a new one to me.
I also doubt they really expected the cease and desist to be obeyed: Hopefully it's just a formality...

[disciple83 @ Jan 25th 2007 12:17PM]

the thing about it is, the term "ant farm" has become a generic term in today's lexicon, much like iPod has to a less-informed person regarding mp3 players. While I definitely take offense to someone referring to my Zen Vision:M as an iPod, I must also take it with a grain of salt since more than likely, Average Joe and Jane haven't seen a ZVM.

The same thing should apply here, While Uncle Milton Industries does have the right to inform readers about the claim to the name, it is up to both the poster and the reader to use the name appropriately. Lack of awareness of the claim can simply mean "ignorance is bliss".

Besides, this is a blog, it isn't like you are selling the Antquarium or the Ant Farm. If they don't like a blogger comparing products under a common name, imagine how mp3 player manufacturers feel when every player in the world is called an iPod when clearly there are both superior and inferior players.

[Scott @ Jan 25th 2007 12:19PM]

My question is, is the estate of Milton Berle (the original "Uncle Milty") aware of this company's existence and infringement on that name?

:D

[CowboyGA @ Jan 25th 2007 12:20PM]

Decombe
"Now, they will be exposed to millions (?) of Engadget readers..."

That's got me wondering. Can someone at Engadget give me a rough estimate of the number of unique IP hits each day? Just a general ballpark. I assumed there were a couple thousand unique daily viewers with a few hundred loyal web tech geeks reading every most every post.

[faust @ Jan 25th 2007 12:56PM]

For Dec 06 comScore has the site at 1.3 million unique users with 3 million page views.

[LK @ Jan 25th 2007 12:26PM]

For Dec 06 comScore has the site at 1.3 million unique users with 3 million page views.

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Jan 25th 2007 1:03PM]

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing and I was about to type "thousands" but decided to go for the hyperbole ;-). After all, I think Engadget received some kind of award for best gadget blog or something lately, so I'm sure they're read all over the world, and that the interesting info is forwarded to many more nonreading friends and family (-"Hey, why dontcha buy an Ant Farm® from good ol' Unc' Milton for Timmy's birthday?" -"Now, there's an idea!").

[Camperton @ Jan 25th 2007 12:22PM]

You're Fired! ™

[Faust @ Jan 25th 2007 12:25PM]

The term ant farm belongs to someone?

That is just crazy

[AndreDFR @ Jan 25th 2007 12:29PM]

Eat your ants to live 1,000 chinese years. Grow your own today!

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jan 25th 2007 12:33PM]

> "ant farm" and substitute it with a generic phrase, such as "ant habitat."

Is it only me who find "ant farm" to be more generic than "ant habitat"?

English isn't my native tongue, so rare words I hit only in books aren't really /generic/ to me. Habitat is such word: I seen it only in Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy. And honestly wasn't bothering checking dictionary, since I know french verb "habiter" and guessed instantly the habitat's meaning. To put simply, I have written off the word to another term invented by writer.

"Farm" on other side chimes close to programmer's "factory" which refers to something populating program's objects. Often, next where such objects live is called "farm". NOT habitat.

[Geoffrey @ Jan 25th 2007 1:50PM]

In terms of one being more generic than the other, given the history of such products, ant habitat is more generic (as in, less specific, not referring to an individual product, but a group of products from the Ant Farm® to the Antquarium, which, I'm sure, is also ®). Habitat is most certainly not a word invented by a 20th century author. Quick check of Dictionary.com tells me that the word has been around in the English language since the 1750's. Also, turns out that the official term is "formicarium".

The original Ant Farm® includes a silhouette of a classic American farm (barn, farmhouse, windmill, etc). Personally, when I was younger, Uncle Milton's Ant Farm® was my first exposure to an ant habitat. They've been hard at work pushing their Ant Farms® since 1956.

Either way, as other people have pointed out, this is just them doing their duty to hold onto their trademark, so that no other person selling a formicarium/ant habitat can call it an Ant Farm®. As far as Alien Ant Farm, the musical group, I don't see any judge (or person) mistaking them as a rip-off of Uncle Milton's Ant Farm®.

As a side note, if the writers here at Engadget® started calling all handheld computing devices Palm®'s, and all portable HDD/Flash-based music players iPod®'s, I would stop coming to them for information, because they obviously can't tell their Asshole's (©1998 Asshole Magazine) from their Holes in the Ground (©Keith Olbermann). Generally, they seem to be smarter than that.

[Otsego @ Jan 25th 2007 12:39PM]

I, for one, applaud your (endgadget's) standing up to the man (Uncle Milton, aka Milty, aka Unk Miltdogg).

[Scott @ Jan 25th 2007 12:39PM]

Note that the email never accused Engadget of infringing on the Ant Farm trademark. From everything I know about trademarks, Engadget can call the Antquarium anything they want. There is no law against making public comparisons to similar products.

This is NOT a cease and desist letter. It is a PUBLIC notification that the term "ANT FARM" is a registered trademark and not a generic term. They are not threatening to sue anyone and, as has been pointed out, this is just standard procedure for trademark protection. Just ask the people who created the term "Aspirin" what happens when you don't protect your trademark.

[Ken @ Jan 25th 2007 12:40PM]

I'm going to have to type this into my Palm (HTC Wizard) and Xerox'ed (Kyocera) a copy for later. I laughed so hard I reached for a Kleenex (Kirkland) and Googled (really, Google) for other places where "Ant Farm" was used.

Anyhoo, I need to walk back to my Cube Farm ^Z^Z^Z "Habitat" and get back to work.

[who me? @ Jan 25th 2007 12:40PM]

Trademark "ant farm" is nuts and sending that letter to Engadget is even worse. They weren't selling a product and only describing a stupid item.

Pass the word and boycott any item that company produces. It's time the consumers stand up and expect more from companies.

[Dk @ Jan 25th 2007 12:42PM]

What a co%k!!!! How about the band Alien Ant Farm? Maybe you should just add Alien before each use of the phrase. Im sick of people claiming copyright over words in general use. Do they think that before they copyrighted the phrase no one had ever used it before?
On a similar topic, good friend of mine got into trouble for using the Hollywood sign on a film website, aparently thats copyrighted as well and you cannot use it without permission! A sign!!!

[AndreDFR @ Jan 25th 2007 12:43PM]

They would sell like hot rice cakes in china, where the people consider ants an important rda of longevity. They would eat the sales right up!

[Andrepig @ Jan 25th 2007 12:47PM]

They would sell like hot spicy rice cakes in China, where Ants are considered RDA for Longevity. Every house hold would have 5 of these farms to keep thier garden of longevity an ample food source. Uncle milton would be a billionaire. Niha

[Jason @ Jan 25th 2007 12:51PM]

Did they send a similar letter to members of Alien Ant Farm, I wonder?

[Brenden @ Jan 25th 2007 12:58PM]

Oh Engadget, you so sassy.

[JJ @ Jan 25th 2007 1:00PM]

That's the way Engadget, stick it to the man!

[J @ Jan 25th 2007 1:00PM]

Well, at least I know that many engadget "readers" can't read.

from unclemilton.com:


Founded in 1946, our company designs, produces and markets innovative toys which have outstanding play value and maximum kid-appeal. Our brands include Ant Farm®, Back2Nature®, Explore It!™, Jet Hawks® and Farm Fresh™. We continually develop exciting new products for these brands and currently have more than fifty products in our line.

Our most famous product is the fascinating Ant Farm® brand ant habitat. This universally recognized icon of American pop culture was introduced to a fad-hungry public in 1956 by company founders Milton M. Levine and E. Joseph Cossman. Ant Farm® was an instant hit. So far, more than 20 million Ant Farm® brand ant habitats have been sold worldwide. Ant Farms® have been featured in many network television shows, major motion pictures, newspapers and magazines. In 2000 the Toy Industry Association selected Ant Farm® as one of the 100 "Toys of the Century."

It sounds like Milton Berle (and his estate) can rest easy, and that they probably do have a claim on the trademark.

[Scott @ Jan 25th 2007 1:04PM]

Who is saying they don't have a claim on the trademark?

[Chris @ Jan 25th 2007 1:18PM]

isn't Farm Fresh a rather large chain of small grocery stores? does uncle milty know about this?

[Foof @ Jan 25th 2007 1:02PM]

"Ant farm" has genericide written all over it. My guess is that basically nobody has bothered challenging the trademark in court because it's not an exactly booming industry.

[josh @ Jan 25th 2007 1:04PM]

"Do they think that before they copyrighted the phrase no one had ever used it before?"

It's likely no one had used it before, since they started selling their ant farm product in the 1950s. They have held the trademark on the title "ant farm" since they started selling "Uncle Milton's Ant Farm"s almost fifty years ago.

[josh @ Jan 25th 2007 1:13PM]

Oops, looked it up - actually they have been selling them for OVER fifty years.

[Brian @ Jan 25th 2007 1:09PM]

Didn't Trump do this with "you're fired" a year ago?

[Bryan @ Jan 25th 2007 1:16PM]

I would advise you not to use the term "Ant Habitat" either as I have that term trademarked. May I suggest you use a different term, such as "Ant place", or "Ant space".

:)

[false @ Jan 25th 2007 1:16PM]

I would think that ant farms are prior art. The fact that they made a fuss about it now will generate negative publicity. I wasn't interested in buying an Antquarium but now I am. Pretty cool looking.

[Matt B @ Jan 25th 2007 1:22PM]

THe fact that 'Farm' is even in the name is confusing. Do you cultivate ants with this? Do the ants cultivate ant food? Ant Habitat fits alot better than farm does.

*Runs out to TM ANT CRIB, ANT DOMICILE, ANT PAD, ANT FLAT, ANT DWELLING, and ANT PLASTIC HOUSING UNIT.*

[snafle @ Jan 25th 2007 1:29PM]

That isn't what is meant by generic. Generic in this case means a word or phrase used to to refer to all products of that type, rather than an individual. So in this case, since Ant Farm is the name they trademarked, they don't want it to become generic.

Also kudos on the book ;). I like it muchly.

[Robert Preseau @ Jan 25th 2007 1:29PM]

Ahhh yes, Intellectual Property in America. No one ever claimed the system wasn't brogen.

[Galley @ Jan 25th 2007 1:31PM]

Dumpster is a registered trademark? Who knew?

[rewris @ Jan 25th 2007 1:36PM]

GO! GO! Engadget.com! GO! Kick ass approach Engadget! Don't bow for anyone! Especially someone called "Uncle Milton". Sounds like that "molster uncle" Chris Rock mentioned in that HBO special!

[B1indspot @ Jan 25th 2007 1:41PM]

That's Hot™ is actually trademarked...


And everytime someone says it, another pixie spreads its legs...

[liquid @ Jan 25th 2007 1:43PM]

"ANT FARM" is a registered trademark and not a generic term"

you have to be kidding, thats about as generic as apple pie.

[Dan @ Jan 25th 2007 1:45PM]

On three, 1...2...3...ANT FARM! That is wack, way to go Engadget.

[Ben @ Jan 25th 2007 1:47PM]

They shouldn’t call it an Ant Farm, anyway. I bought an “Ant Farm” once, them fellas didn’t grow shit.

[Atro @ Jan 25th 2007 1:53PM]

I just trademarked "ant habitat" so you will have to find something more generic like "ant crib".