Porn studio X-Play has successfully registered the word “Not” in porn movie titles as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Seriously.
X-Play has produced some of the best-known porn parodies of the last couple years, including Not the Bradys XXX, Not the Cosbys XXX, Not Monday Night Football XXX, Not Married with Children XXX, Not Bewitched XXX and Not Three’s Company XXX. Some were released through Larry Flynt Productions, some through Adam & Eve, but X-Play titles consistently use that Not … XXX format. And now they have an official trademark.
X-Play president Jeff Mullen explains, “We had to gently ask companies over the past year or so not to use the word ‘Not’ in their adult movie titles and a few companies agreed and changed their titles particularly those in the parody arena. 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.”
Jeff Mullen directs most X-Play titles under the porn name “Will Ryder”. Same guy.
X-Play specifically objected to Vouyer (sic) Media’s Not Really the Dukes of Hazzard and Burning Angel’s Not Another Porn Movie as examples of other porn studios ripping off their brand.
However, Not Another Porn Movie (2008) predates most of X-Play’s parodies, and the title was clearly a play on the 2001 mainstream flick Not Another Teen Movie.
And is “Not Really …” close enough to “Not … XXX” to make a trademark challenge stick? We’ll find out soon enough, as Vouyer has already announced their new parody project Not Really Taxi, with Ron Jeremy playing the Danny DeVito role.
