Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Mani Bombs for all.


This last week the nail community has been in an uproar. The cause? The Mani Bomb. It has become a popular item in nail care recently that has also sparked controversy.  

So lets first start off with what is a Mani Bomb? It is like a bath bomb (smaller) but for your nails and hands. It includes many salts and oils that are good for your skin.


Now you may be wondering where the controversy of such a innocent but amazing product is. Recently it was discovered that Forever Polished had submitted the paper work to Trademark the name Mani Bomb. There is a few blog posts predating the time that Forever Polished claims to have begun making Mani Bombs. Those can be found here and here (this one was first and has pictures.) .The blog post is a recipe on how to make your own. Forever Polished actions are leaving everyone questioning why they would make such a move. If they were to win this could hinder other indie brands from being able to use the term Mani Bomb and having to call it something else entirely. Not only would it cause issues for other indies but in reality it could cost Forever Polished more time and money chasing after anyone using the term to get them to stop than what its worth. Forever polished site is currently under maintenance and all social media is quite about the situation. While in her fan page group on facebook the story has changed several times over.


A brand called Baroness X is raising funds to prevent the term Mani bomb from being trademarked. If you would like to support the opposition of the trademark of Mani Bomb, head over here to do so.

Also show your support on social media with the tag #ManiBombsforall
A photo posted by rubyblood (@rubyblood) on
So where do you sit on this controversy? Do you think its a crazy move?


Additional facts:

Ashley Martinez, the maker behind the brand Forever Polished, has filed a trademark application for mani bombs.  In the application she states the term mani bomb's first use was 11/1/2013 and the first use in commerce was 11/18/2013.   You can view the trademark application here:


There is also proof of other brands selling mani bombs as far back as 2008.
(This also includes non indies as well.)

 The issue the community has is with the sentence “I have applied for a TM and I can rightfully do that.”  That is factually incorrect.  According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a person cannot trademark a generic term or description of a product/service.  Mani bomb is widely accepted as the name of the product and is used by various businesses.  Trademarking mani bombs is like trying to trademark nail polish, lipstick, blush, cheeseburger etc.  If she had come up with a specific, unique to her shop only name for mani bombs no one would have a problem.  If she had come up with something unique like McDonald’s did with Big Mac or MAC Cosmetics did for lustreglass, no one in the community would object to it and she would be welcomed to trademark it.  That is the crux of the issue but Ashley refuses to acknowledge these concerns.


My thoughts:
I have taken my time on deciding my point of view for this situation. I wrote this post to be informational because the threads discussing it are long and this made it where all the information was in one place. I as a blogger know what it is like to build a brand and do the marketing. When dealing in physical goods the issues are 10 fold due to printing ect that cannot be easily changed. This could financially impact many Indies on the market. I am a huge supporter of indies and love that there is such an amazing selection available and would hate to see anyone impacted if this were to be allowed. I believe that something so generic as the term Mani Bomb should not be allowed to be trademarked. I have looked at Forever polished mani bombs and I wish I could say I found her under other circumstances. Her mani bombs are gorgeous and I love all the different shapes that she is or has made previously. I find myself wondering why she would have decided to make such a move. Now it has caused an uproar in the community that she serves. This could affect her business in one of 2 ways. This could help make others more aware of her and equal more sales, or this could cause others to steer clear of her. I personally now want to try mani bombs. Will I be purchasing from FP? No, I will be checking out other indies wares and do my research and will get a couple and try them for myself. Will I purchase from FP in the future? I am not sure on that one, it could happen. What I am saying is I believe in small business. I also believe that small business owners should not do things to hurt their fellow small business owners.



6 comments:

  1. I was surprised to hear about the trademark. While I can understand her claim that her brand and work helped make mani bombs popular (I personally had never heard of her brand until all of this), I fail to understand how trademarking the name would do anything aside from prevent other indie brands from using the same name for their product. They'd still be able to sell the same product but would be forced to change the name and therefore, make things harder on them...so it's not protecting her brand as much as it is trying to hurt her competition. Considering so many people are already selling "mani bombs" and it wasn't her original idea, it seems like a really nasty move. If it was a unique name, or if she had attempted to trademark the name before others used it, then I could probably understand. I suspect if she was confident she made the best product, then she would have focused her time and effort on fulfilling orders.

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  2. I think this is just insane. It's bad for her business in my opinion. I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say I will continue to purchase mani bombs from other indies, whether they're called mani bombs or not. We should all be encouraging one another and lifting each other up, not bringing each other down! Thank you for writing this post and sharing with everyone on IG!

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  3. While slightly different, this trademark is being applied for. She isn't the first one to do this, but she's going to trademark it. Is it really that different? https://inventively.com/search/trademarks/86235582

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  4. ^^ that trademark is super specific and not general like the mani bombs one.
    Interesting article.

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  5. In my eyes, this is the exact same move that Ciate did with Caviar Nails. It's self serving and aggressive.

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  6. Exchange marks are a key part of working together. Organizations can utilize exchange marks in the advancement of their own novel 'brand image', permitting purchasers to recognize the wellspring of the items and administrations of enthusiasm to them. global trademark search

    ReplyDelete

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