"Linsanity" catchphrase to be trademarked by Lin

Friday, Feb 24, 2012      

NEW YORK - Call it insanity or "Linsanity"! But in time to come, the phrase can't be tossed around like a basketball if New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin has his way.
He has filed to trademark the term "Linsanity" with the US Patent and Trademark Office, a move that would give the rising NBA star sole rights to use the term on products.
According to the trademark regulators' website, Lin filed his application to trademark the term on February 13, about 10 days after he burst into the spotlight as an unlikely benchwarmer turned hero for the Knicks.
Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan, was cut by two NBA clubs but given a chance to play when two Knicks starters were sidelined. Lin produced the most points and assists of any NBA player in their first 10 starts since 1976.

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Jeremy Lin puts the ball in Asian Americans' court

The rise of New York Knicks basketball player Jeremy Lin has drawn fans as diverse as Harlem street ballers, late-night talk show hosts and Sarah Palin, but nowhere has his story been more deeply felt than within Asian Americans.

In the Asian American community even third and fourth generations must contend with being treated as perpetual foreigners. So it comes as no surprise that they have embraced the big pop culture bang that created "Linsanity" — a force that already has turned long-entrenched cultural stereotypes on their heads and made the Ivy League-educated point guard the most visible Asian American in the country, if not the world.

"[Lin is] definitely a departure from the invisibility or the erasing of Asian American-ness of Asian American players," said Kathleen Yep, a Pitzer College professor of Asian American studies and author of "Outside the Paint: When Basketball Ruled at the Chinese Playground." "There's a fascinating thing of many people claiming Jeremy Lin ... as part of the American story."
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