Norwegian Underwear Brand Challenges US Patent & Trademark Office with NSFW Advert

Comfyballs is a brand that you can never run out of puns for, and it seems the brand, too, is having an unlimited amount of fun with its playful name. The pen pushers at the United States Patent & Trademark Office are not laughing, though, when they banned the brand from ever securing a U.S. trademark for its use of the word "balls” in December.

To retaliate Comfyballs released a new advertisement that will drive the U.S. PTO nuts. On its website, the Norwegian underwear manufacturer has uploaded a new video featuring the swinging male parts in all their "unretouched" glory.

The video ends with a message: “In the land of the free, your balls are not. Legalize Comfyballs.” The video is part of the underwear maker's Fight For Your Balls Campaign.

"We can think of many vulgar words describing this particular part of the male body, but 'balls' is not among them. We hope the general American public agrees," the brand's website said. As expected the video and the whole campaign went viral, with even The Telegraph and Mashable, picking up the story.

"Even if we were to show balls on the packaging, which we won’t, you could argue whether this would be vulgar or not. As it is now our super comfortable underwear is nicely designed and exclusively produced for discerning men, also in the U.S.," Comfyballs noted.

It also left the U.S. PTO a challenge: "The word 'balls' is part of the American vernacular describing among other things guts or courage. We hope of course even the US Patent & Trademark Office will show some of those, if not on film."

The brand has also set up a poll asking website visitors whether they deem the term balls vulgar. As of this writing, some 6,000 voters responded "no."

The Telegraph revealed that the U.S. PTO declined Comfyballs' trademark application because its mark "does not create a double entendre or other idiomatic expression. When used in this way, the word, 'balls' has an offensive meaning."

Comfyballs is among those brands that are trying to set themselves apart from the competition by resorting to wit, rather than use images of muscled, nearly naked men on its advertisements and packaging. Its brand name is also telling of its no-nonsense philosophy; after all, its products are made to provide comfort and support to a man's balls, while utilising the latest fabric technology out there.

The same is true of Canadian luxury brand Naked, which has also chosen a rather straightforward brand name and use faceless ads. "We take pride that there’s not another man’s name on your underwear; that allows the wearer to define what this product means to them," Joel Primus, the company's founder and president, told The Star in a report last year.

Comfyballs was established in Scandinavia in 2013 and has operations in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Contact the writer: a.lu@ibtimes.com.au