14 DAY TRIAL // 2012 was supposed to be – at least according to countless reports online – the year of the Apocalypse, as the Mayan calendar predicted a long time ago. That turned out to be untrue (phew!), but if you’re thinking of throwing an “End of the World” party, think twice.
Especially if you happen to live in Germany.
One party planner, Philip-Nicholas Blank, is taking rivals to court for organizing such thematic parties on the claims that he has the phrase patented.
In other words, much like rapper Drake did with “YOLO,” if you want to throw such a party, you’d better be ready to pay up.
“It's just a phrase like New Year's Eve or Christmas. You can't copyright it,” one organizer who has already been sued tells the German Herald.
Blank very much disagrees: he can patent the phrase, has already done that and is now looking to cash in.
“It's a patented name, like Coca-Cola. Anyone who used it for a party without my permission has to pay,” he says for the same media outlet.