ABSTRACT
The ‘Honey Badger’ became a pop culture sensation in 2011 when a man named Christopher Gordon, using the pseudonym Randall, added his voiceover commentary to National Geographic footage of a badger foraging for live animals in its natural habitat. The roughly three-minute YouTube video now has over 90 million views and over 40,000 comments. Gordon’s mock-umentary popularized the catchphrase ‘honey badger don’t care’, making it a ‘cultural icon’ and ‘viral sensation’. Between 2013 and 2016, Gordon acquired five different federal trademark registrations for the phrase in connection with a variety of goods, including clothing, toys, mugs, mobile phone applications, and bumper stickers. His licensees sell over 9,000 Honey Badger-themed items, including greeting cards, at major retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Urban Outfitters. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Anderson Cooper have quoted his video narration, which he registered with the US Copyright Office. He has appeared on television news programs, and his book, Honey Badger Don’t Care: Randall’s Guide to Crazy, Nastyass Animals, is available from Amazon and other booksellers. The trademark controversy arose in 2015 when Gordon sued on behalf of a non-licensed greeting card use …
Gold, Sara, Honey Badger Don’t Care, but the Legal Community Does (2019). Wake Forest Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Law volume 19, no 4 (2019).
First posted 2020-03-06 06:27:44
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