This is… unexpected. The phrase “it’s on like Donkey Kong,” which I don’t say nearly enough, is never something I actually associated with Nintendo. I don’t recall ever seeing it in any games or on box art, or even in promotional materials. Yet now Nintendo is trying to trademark it. Presumably this has to do with the new Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii, coming out November 21st.
Query: isn’t “Donkey Kong” already using someone else’s trademark? You know, that giant gorilla King Kong? How did Nintendo slip that one under the radar?
It’s possible Nintendo is just doing this for publicity, in which case, mission accomplished. And mission reprehensible. Whether they’re serious or not, I doubt they have a case. The phrase has been in public use for probably 20 years at least, and Nintendo hasn’t made a single attempt to own it. It’d be like Capcom trying to trademark “sonic boom.”
By the way, that image on the right there is only like 3KB. How cool is that?