Did Squatty Potty File for a Trademark for SHITRUS?

Squatty Potty Filed for a Trademark for SHITRUS for a Deodorizer

Utah company Squatty Potty, LLC is known for providing a small stool as a toilet accessory. This small stool is designed to improve your bowel movements. Squatty Potty apparently intends to sell a deodorizer under the trademark SHITRUS. Shitrus sounds like it might be a word, but I could not find it in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. However, Urban Dictionary did have a definition  for SHITRUS as follows: “when citrus air freshener is sprayed after defecating, it produces a smell that is a combination of the two of these.”  Let’s face it, we’ve all experienced it. You’re lying to yourself if you think you haven’t.

The question we dare not ask ourselves is whether this SHITRUS deodorizer might have the fragrance of shitrus.  I sincerely hope that our impatient society does not expect to be able to experience the fragrance of shitrus without earning it. So many today want instant gratification. We have same-day delivery, instant communication with friends, the ability to watch any movie within seconds, etc. We need to draw the line somewhere, and I think shitrus is the line. If kids today think they can just buy a shitrus experience without going through the hard work required to produce it, we are truly lost. Let’s all hope and pray that we can always keep the shitrus aromatic experience something that you have to work and/or push for. (But a shitrus essential oil might be nice to give you that feeling of satisfaction.)

For Intellectual Property Attorneys Only

Squatty Potty filed this trademark application for SHITRUS as an Intent-To-Use application with an initial description of goods of “air deodorizer; household deodorizer.” The trademark application was filed on August 11, 2016. There were no rejections by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the application was published in the Trademark Official Gazette on October 11, 2016.

The trademark examiner did not issue a rejection for SHITRUS under §2(e)(1) as being merely descriptive. We can only hope that the fragrance of any SHITRUS deodorizer would not smell like shitrus.  The shitrus smell seems like something you’d have to settle for, not one you’d want to start out with.

Information from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s website provides the following data about this trademark application: