#JeSuisCharlie patent
January 16, 2015
Joachim Roncin was sitting in an editorial meeting at a fashion magazine in Paris when two men armed with AK-47s opened fire on the offices of the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Upon hearing the news, the graphic designer says he hastily designed a tribute logo for the victims, taking inspiration from John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner," or the "We are all Americans" credo that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Roncin, who counted only 400 Twitter followers before the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, watched as his slogan went viral. According to Twitter's official French profile, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie appeared 6,631,017 times between Jan. 7 and Jan. 12. Roncin now has 7,056 Twitter followers.
Now Roncin is trying to patent his design - the words "Je suis Charlie" in white and grey letters on a black background.
He says he wants to protect it from commercial exploitation as businesses try and cash in on the message's popularity by printing it on mugs, t-shirts and other trinkets.
"At the moment I'm working with lawyers to fight this as much as possible, to ensure that objects derived from this slogan only serve the purpose of furthering freedom of expression," Roncin told the French news agency Agence France-Presse.
That may be more difficult than it sounds. The French patent office has reportedly so far denied 120 patent applications seeking to lay claim to the slogan.
His lawyer, Myriam Sebban, says that Roncin "will rely on his copyright to try and control the use of the slogan and keep the initial message intact."
Hours after the attack in Paris, countless mourners in the French capital and other cities around the world were holding signs emblazoned with Roncin's three-word tribute.
"It all happened very fast," Roncin said. "It is all very confused, it was a chain of events, it was worldwide."
cjc/sgb (AFP, dpa)