By far the most amusing press release to come across my desk in a long while: This week the United States Patent and Trademark Office registered a trademark granting adult film studio X-Play exclusive use of the word "Not" for adult parody movies.
X-Play and LFP Video (Larry Flynt Productions) are behind the hit series of "sitcum" porn parodies of classic TV shows, with titles including Not The Brady's XXX, Not Three's Company XXX, Not Bewitched XXX, Not Married With Children XXX, Not Monday Night Football XXX, and Not The Cosbys XXX (see slideshow below).
This week X-Play announced the casting leads for its next parody, Not Charlie's Angels XXX, with Bree Olson, Sunny Leone and Andy San Dimas as Jill, Kelly and Sabrina, in the roles made famous by Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson. The parodies are so successful that several of the titles have become franchises of their own: X-Play just released a sequel to Not the Cosbys XXX 2 and will release Not Married with Children XXX 2 on March 23. There are already three titles in the Not the Bradys XXX series spoofing The Brady Bunch.
From the press release:
After nearly two years of attempts, X-Play has finally been granted a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for usage of the word 'Not' in an adult movie title.
With high profile movies such as Not the Bradys XXX, Not Bewitched XXX, Not the Cosbys XXX, Not Married with Children XXX, Not Airplane XXX: Flight Attendants, and many others that have become franchise type properties, the Registered Trademark supplies protection from other companies wishing to capitalize on the good name that X-Play has created with their Not... XXX series of best-selling porn.
"We had to gently ask companies over the past year or so not to use the word 'No't in their adult movie titles and a few companies agreed and changed their titles particularly those in the parody arena," stated Jeff Mullen president of X-Play.
"However with the proliferation and popularity of the porn parody by so many companies it became more important than ever to protect our Not... XXX brand and we now have legal rights to keep others from using the word 'not' especially at the beginning of their movie title," Mullen who directs using the name Will Ryder continued...
The award-winning production team at X-Play understands the irony in all of this considering that spoofs of blockbuster classic television shows are the basis of their porn parody success but still they understand they must prevent confusion which might result from other companies capitalizing on the good name and brand awareness that they have created among those that purchase adult movies.
"New Sensations has their brand of adult parody titles, Hustler has their unique title prefix, Devils has theirs, Zero Tolerance and PopPorn have theirs and others go out of their way to make sure they create their own identify but the use of the word 'Not' should now be avoided," Mullen suggested.
Comments