I am a lifelong milk hater, newly lactose intolerant!

I would think it was dirty soda!

not exactly. it’s soooo good. it’s like
liquid coffee ice cream 😋

washington & florida also on point

nah that was the other most predictable one! I knew it without even checking

yeah the registrations themselves are questionable

they're trying to launch their own app & steer people to it i guess. but not the approach i'd take (for trademark reasons & optics reasons & humanity reasons)

this is different from nominative (not normative) fair use, which is when folks use a trademark in its trademark sense (not its descriptive sense) to refer to the brand/product, like "check out my new nikes" or "our headphones are compatible with the iphone 15"

the article botches the trademark fair use explanation

most likely courts would say these groups use the terms "buy nothing" in their descriptive sense, other than as a trademark, & fairly & in good faith, meaning they qualify as descriptive fair use & are permissible

the san francisco group changed its name (buy not a thing!) & is back up & running

my local group doesn't look like it went anywhere. it's not clear how many groups are currently deactivated--lmk if you hear more.

as the article highlights, this is particularly brutal timing given that buy nothing groups often give away food (leftovers, stuff families bought & dislike, etc)

1 in 8 americans is on SNAP; many are struggling & hungry right now. food giveaways on buy nothing groups ramped up.

ironically, FREECYCLE also once tried to enjoin a local freecycle group from using its mark by alleging trademark infringement; the court found in allowing everyone to use it w/o rules or oversight, the owner had abandoned the mark by "naked licensing"

super helpful, thanks for weighing in!!

yup. turned 8 last week

so it's a backronym, kinda!