Company Wins Right to Sell 'F—ing Schnapps'
A German company has won the right to register "ficken," which is the German word for "fuckin'," as a trademark in order to sell Ficken Likör—aka the People's Partyschnaps—as well as mineral water, other refreshing beverages, and clothing.
The right to "fuck" is a powerful thing, which is probably why the new owner of the trademark, EFAG Trade Mark Company, was willing to go all the way to the top patent court in Germany to win it. The old party-poopers in the German Patent and Trademark Office had rejected EFAG's application based on the belief that naming a product "fucking" was "socially offensive" (no more offensive than Ficken's ads, which feature a bloated, Teutonic version of what seems to be Slash and Axl of Guns 'n' Roses), but Germany's fun-loving Federal Patent Court (the high court) found nothing "sexually discriminatory" or offensive to public morals about the name at all.
Also, because most Germans talk about ficken pretty much constantly nowadays, "today [the word] is barely considered offensive or sexually-provocative," the court wrote. This case isn't even the first involving a "fucking" beverage: Last year a German company won the right to market Fucking Hell beer, named after an Austrian town whose main attraction is a road sign.
Ficken is marketing its beverage (made with berries, vodka, and pure liquid class) by handing out condoms and underwear, to reiterate the "partyschnapps" theme and to surprise no one at all.
