I'm pretty sure this was a consistent story from the start, and he started making the comics for a college he worked for I think?
I highly doubt it even got trademarked as like I said, the guy who made that mop product likely failed at pitching it to anyone & likely never got it trademarked.
A pitch wouldn't stop Nickelodeon/Viacom from using the name, and most people would have their product trademarked before the pitch.
I highly doubt it even got trademarked as like I said, the guy who made that mop product likely failed at pitching it to anyone & likely never got it trademarked.
A pitch wouldn't stop Nickelodeon/Viacom from using the name, and most people would have their product trademarked before the pitch.
I guess what I'm really trying to grasp at is this: Is this whole thing merely an apocryphal story (like Billy West's claim about Kurt Cobain writing a song for Ren and Stimpy). With so little evidence to back this all up besides hearsay, i honestly don't know what to think
Well, the U.S. copyright office website doesn't list such a copyright eve existing, so presumably not only did the product never come out, but he/she might've quickly forgotten about it before he/she could copyright it.
Are we sure it was copyrighted and not trademarked? That's a different process.
Did not think to look that up. Just did a search on Trademarkia and didn't get anything there. Even if it was expired, it still would have shown up.
Are we sure it was copyrighted and not trademarked? That's a different process.
Did not think to look that up. Just did a search on Trademarkia and didn't get anything there. Even if it was expired, it still would have shown up.
OOOOOHHHHHHH, that might mean something real fishy is going on around here! Either this was trademarked in another country or an apocryphal story like what EmptyEyesEmptyMind said?
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You know, in Australia, Burger King is called "Hungry Jack's" for the same reason. I'd like to know more about this alleged mop, too. I thought I once read that the entire pilot's dialogue was recorded with the characters saying "SpongeBoy" before they discovered they couldn't use it. Is that true or not?
Last Edit: Mar 10, 2022 5:56:45 GMT by teridaxxd001
You know, that kinda reminds me of how the reason the Nintendo GameCube was abbreviated as GCN is reportedly due to NGC being the name of a Japanese phone company. Not only is there no evidence that this supposed company existed at all, but the URL for the GameCube page on the Japanese Nintendo website abbreviates it as NGC anyway!
You know, that kinda reminds me of how the reason the Nintendo GameCube was abbreviated as GCN is reportedly due to NGC being the name of a Japanese phone company. Not only is there no evidence that this supposed company existed at all, but the URL for the GameCube page on the Japanese Nintendo website abbreviates it as NGC anyway!
Wow, like jeez, this kind of bullcrap isn't just a thing with SpongeBob. This bullcrap spawned elsewhere as well! What other bullcrap copyright/trademark have you seen that is just like that?
Dreams are boundless, imaginations are infinite, space is a multi-directional spiral & Akazukin ChaCha is my favorite anime
Yeah I don't believe there actually ever was a mop, I think this is all based on some wild internet rumor. I think the truth is the creators realized Spongeboy just wasn't a very good name, Stephen Hillenburg said as much in one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes on the season one DVD, he didn't say anything about a mop.
Yeah I don't believe there actually ever was a mop, I think this is all based on some wild internet rumor. I think the truth is the creators realized Spongeboy just wasn't a very good name, Stephen Hillenburg said as much in one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes on the season one DVD, he didn't say anything about a mop.
Wait, really now? It was THAT easy to disprove the existence of the mop!?
Just wow, I was too stupid to think of it. Thank you for actually deciding to go through the behind-the-scenes stuff man!
Dreams are boundless, imaginations are infinite, space is a multi-directional spiral & Akazukin ChaCha is my favorite anime
Yeah I don't believe there actually ever was a mop, I think this is all based on some wild internet rumor. I think the truth is the creators realized Spongeboy just wasn't a very good name, Stephen Hillenburg said as much in one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes on the season one DVD, he didn't say anything about a mop.
Wait, really now? It was THAT easy to disprove the existence of the mop!?
Just wow, I was too stupid to think of it. Thank you for actually deciding to go through the behind-the-scenes stuff man!
Oh I didn't go through it recently for this thread, I watched all that behind-the-scenes stuff back when I owned the season one DVD as a kid and I just so happen to vividly remember Hillenberg talking about the original name of the show, if there was any mention of a mop I would've remembered. Stephen did say they found out the original name was trademarked, but they did not say anything about it being a mop, so if there was a trademark for Spongeboy it was something completely different.
Wait, really now? It was THAT easy to disprove the existence of the mop!?
Just wow, I was too stupid to think of it. Thank you for actually deciding to go through the behind-the-scenes stuff man!
Oh I didn't go through it recently for this thread, I watched all that behind-the-scenes stuff back when I owned the season one DVD as a kid and I just so happen to vividly remember Hillenberg talking about the original name of the show, if there was any mention of a mop I would've remembered. Stephen did say they found out the original name was trademarked, but they did not say anything about it being a mop, so if there was a trademark for Spongeboy it was something completely different.
Well, there was no other mention of any other Spongeboy product in existence according to trademark sites, so... might be Hillenburg misremembering something?
Dreams are boundless, imaginations are infinite, space is a multi-directional spiral & Akazukin ChaCha is my favorite anime
Oh I didn't go through it recently for this thread, I watched all that behind-the-scenes stuff back when I owned the season one DVD as a kid and I just so happen to vividly remember Hillenberg talking about the original name of the show, if there was any mention of a mop I would've remembered. Stephen did say they found out the original name was trademarked, but they did not say anything about it being a mop, so if there was a trademark for Spongeboy it was something completely different.
Well, there was no other mention of any other Spongeboy product in existence according to trademark sites, so... might be Hillenburg misremembering something?
It's possible, or maybe someone told them there was a copyright claim but in reality there wasn't? Maybe someone just told him that cause they knew Spongeboy wasn't a very good name and they needed a convenient excuse to change it to something else?
Well, there was no other mention of any other Spongeboy product in existence according to trademark sites, so... might be Hillenburg misremembering something?
It's possible, or maybe someone told them there was a copyright claim but in reality there wasn't? Maybe someone just told him that cause they knew Spongeboy wasn't a very good name and they needed a convenient excuse to change it to something else?
That's most certainly possible lmao. People always try to come up with good excuses, even I have done that multiple times in my life!
Dreams are boundless, imaginations are infinite, space is a multi-directional spiral & Akazukin ChaCha is my favorite anime