Can We File? Joan Rivers was No Stranger to Trademarks...

Joan Rivers was known much better in the field of comedy than intellectual property, and while there are plenty of accolades being given her for her genius as a comedian, we think she should also be recognized as someone who understood the value of a trademark.

Starting way back in 1984, Joan began trying to trademark a well known part of her comedy routine, the phrase “Can we talk?” and on September 9, 1986 she was awarded US Trademark No. 1408489 for “CAN WE TALK?” in the field of GREETING CARDS, WRITING PAPER AND ENVELOPES, NOTE CARDS, AND PAPER NAPKINS AND PLACEMATS. But did she stop there? No, not only could she talk, but she could file trademarks. Soon to follow were:

1849038 and 1842345 for “YOU DESERVE TO BE HAPPY”, 1818890 for JOAN RIVERS CLASSICS COLLECTION, 2085516 for “JOAN RIVERS”, 2114309 for "JOAN'S WORLD", 2150995 for "IMPERIAL TREASURES BY JOAN RIVERS", 2291516 for “BABY HEARTS”, and 2293497 for “BABY HEARTS BY JOAN RIVERS”. And this was all by the close of 1999.

The turn of the century saw Ms. Rivers heading right back to the USPTO with 2358260 for “DO IT NOW!”, 2293628 for “NAIL CLASSICS”, 2293629 for “JOAN RIVERS NAIL CLASSICS”, 2388350 for the rather long trademark on “YESTERDAY IS HISTORY, TOMORROW IS A MYSTERY. TODAY IS GOD'S GIFT. THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED THE PRESENT.” For a jewelry line, 2742296 and 2474106 for “JOAN RIVERS RESULTS”, 2364280 for “PINK CHAMPAGNE”, 2574314 for “HEARTS & FLOWERS BY JOAN RIVERS”, 2847704 for “JOAN RIVERS BEAUTY”, and last but certainly not least, 4566503 which issued in July of 2014 for “IN BED WITH JOAN” for “Entertainment services, namely, providing on-going webisodes featuring Joan Rivers interviewing celebrities via a global computer network.”

So, while Ms. Rivers’ intellectual property pursuits are not the foremost thing in people’s minds when they think back on her life, her accomplishments in this area are worth remembering as well.