"Blegh" has become a pretty commonplace term across metal over the years. For those unaware, "blegh" is that visceral vocal sound that generally precedes a breakdown or some really heavy part. There are plenty of compilations dedicated to the technique on YouTube because of course there are. I've always been partial to Jonny Davy's "blegh" in Job For A Cowboy's cover of Exhumed's "The Matter Of Splatter", personally.
Unfortunate a German company named Blegh.de has trademarked the term and is causing some trouble. It all started when clothing store Death Sentence took to Instagram, saying their store got flagged because of the new trademark.
"Someone in Germany has just trademarked the word BLEGH as their own and as a consequence I can no longer use it," Death Sentence wrote. "I can prove I was using it before they claimed it as their own, as can dozens of other people/brands/bands out there. What are your thoughts?!"
Blegh.de has since turned off all the comments on their Instagram. A quick look at the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (German Patent and Trade Mark Office) website shows that someone did indeed trademark the term "blegh" in Germany.
It also appears the trademark was filed on November 18, 2023 and sadly the date for objection to the trademark ended on September 30, 2024. The trademark falls into three categories:
- Class(es) 16: Stickers [decals]; stickers for car bumpers; stickers [stationery]; decorative stickers for car wheel hubs; decals; art prints; tear-off calendars; pop-up greeting cards; canvas prints; engravings
- Class(es) 21: cups; breadboards; mugs; glasses cloths
- Class(es) 25: printed T-shirts; baby tops; baby bibs [not of paper]; baby linen; baseball caps; bobble hats; hats; clothing
As for the trademarked "blegh" merch, it's not really interesting. You can check out Blegh.DE here but it looks like a boatload of print-on-demand "we put a word on a buncha stuff" kinda merch. Not exactly a thrilling, feast-for-the-eyes line of merch that warranted a trademark, y'know?
