Retailer banned from asserting festive ‘Home Alone’ quote as TM

A US retailer has been ordered to stop claiming it owns a trademark for the phrase “Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal”, a famous line from the “Home Alone” franchise of films.

The US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted apparel company DT Fashion’s injunction request against Nevada-based retailer The Dark Monkey and an Ohio resident called Santana Jade Cline.

DT Fashion claimed the defendants “schematically caused the deactivation” of products that it owned bearing the phrase from being sold on e-commerce site Etsy “by improperly asserting trademark and copyright violations”.

In a ruling handed down on November 24, Judge Edmund Sargus instructed the defendants to stop claiming trademark rights for the term and told them to stop filing copyright notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

“Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal” was a famous quote from the 1992 Christmas film “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”.