YouTube Turns On Trademark-Seeking Stars

YouTube stars Benny and Rafi Fine have risen to popularity with videos of kids and teens reacting to things like old technology, theme songs, or other YouTube videos. But the much-loved Internet celebrities felt the wrath of their community when they announced they would seek to trademark “react,” and “opinion,” with regard to videos, and would ask creators making similar videos to share revenues. The Fine brothers began losing subscribers, and many other creators made remix videos or original music videos mocking their announcement. “These guys didn’t come up with the idea of filming funny reactions from kids,” attorney Ryan Morrison wrote. “And they certainly don’t own an entire genre of YouTube videos. It wasn’t their idea, and it’s not theirs to own or police.”