[E. Pluribus Unum]

Shouldn't they have a trademark on the word "sandwich" too?

As long they're trademarking everything in the dictionary, I mean.

[Fido969]

A Google search on “footlong” results in about 445,000 hits, only some of them related to Subway.

Good luck enforcing that, Subway.

[Walts Ice Pick]

My wife was using the word "footlong" long before Subway.

Ridiculous trademark rules.

[MountainDad]

So much time and money wasted over a stupid word.

[yarddog]

It is odd how a word will bring back memories.

Around 1955 when I was 8 years old, we were on Eglin AFB. There was a snack shack near the old Southern Airways terminal.

I saw a sign on the place advertising foot long hot dogs at a good price. To my surprise Daddy let me get one. I can still remember thinking how good it was.

[SuziQ]

The term ‘footlong’ has been in use for many years. It was used mainly for hot dogs, but regardless, it wasn’t invented by Subway.

[JoeFromSidney]

I can remember buying "footlong hot dogs" at our county fair back in the 1940s. This is ridiculous. It has to be stopped before someone trademarks the alphabet.

[ReverendJames]

Didn’t Microsoft at one time try to trademark the “@” sign?

[Secret Agent Man]

It’s not like “Subway” can sue cities that have and use the word “subway” for infringenment, either. In fact, perhaps those cities shoud sue Subway....

Footlong is not a trademark.

[Richard Kimball]

Sease said Subway has applied for two different trademarks for "footlong," one referring to sandwiches and another for restaurant services.

And the jokes write themselves.

[DemforBush]

Some of the posts in this thread are making me think of Tom Hanks’ greatest movie.

I speak, of course, of Bachelor Party.

(If you’ve seen the movie, you know the scene I refer to).

[JohnThune2012]

I will never pay 5.00 for a sandwich,that’s 41 cents an inch! Damn that’s expensive! For five dollars you can buy two loafs of bread and 3 pounds of Oscar Myer Salami!!! Yummy.

[antceecee]

Their ad involves more than one word. “Five... five dollar footlong”. Perhaps they can trademark the ad campaign, but not the word footlong.

[dixiechick2000]

“Sease said Subway has applied for two different trademarks for “footlong,” one referring to sandwiches and another for restaurant services.”

I would think that the word “footlong” has been in public usage so often, and for so long, that any judge who gave Subway the trademark should be removed.

[ml/nj]

Despite the comments I see here about how common footlong is, the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed)says it is obsolete and rare. The one usage example they give comes from 1545 and there it is spelled footlonge. (FR's spellchecker doesn't recognize it either!)

Subway made it common, and they should be entitled to use it as a trademark.

ML/NJ