Couple Files to Trademark 'Occupy Wall Street'

A Long Island couple—or, as New York magazine more appropriately puts it, some totally “random” Long Island couple—has filed to trademark “Occupy Wall Street.” You see, the movement has the potential to become a “global brand,” say Robert and Diane Maresca and, as Robert tells the Smoking Gun, “If I didn’t buy it and use it someone else will.”

What exactly do they plan to do if they succeed? Sell bumper stickers, T-shirts, shoes, umbrellas, and bags bearing the phrase “Occupy Wall Street,” of course. Robert, who says he is a political independent and has visited the protests, acknowledges that the $975 filing, made Oct. 18, is “something of a gamble.” Also notable: While doing his research, Robert Maresca discovered that a Brooklyn man has already filed to trademark “We Are the 99%.” (More Occupy Wall Street stories.)