You may have witnessed the green blogosphere emit one huge WTF? over the past couple of days with news that the Dervaes family, the owners of a small urban farm at their home in Pasadena, Calif., trademarked terms including “urban homestead” and “urban homesteading” in October of last year. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a blogger, gardener, public institution or longtime urban homesteader — you better not use those terms without proper credit because, as it turns out, the Dervaes family (or their legal team, rather) will come after you.

This is the second completely ludicrous instance of supposed trademark infringement in recent weeks. In December, lawyers representing artist Jeff Koons sent cease-and-desist letters to a Canadian manufacturer and a San Francisco gallery/store for making and selling bookends that resembled his famous “Balloon Dog” sculptures. Koons claimed that the businesses violated his intellectual property rights. This of course, raised the question: “Does Jeff Koons own what a balloon animal looks like?” Ultimately, Koons must have decided that he doesn’t; last week he dropped the charges.

So back to the Dervaes family and the URBAN HOMESTEADING® and URBAN HOMSTEAD® issue. Over the past couple of weeks, numerous organizations and blogs have received lettersrequesting that they please remove or replace the “UH” terms (with things like “modern homesteading” or “urban sustainability projects”) since they’ve been used without proper trademark notice. As Anais Dervaes points out, the said letter is not of the “cease-and-desist" nature and bloggers are not being sued.

Reads the opening of the letter:

Writes a totally fired-up Gustavo Arellano at OC Weekly:

In addition to URBAN HOMESTEADING® and URBAN HOMESTEAD®, the terms PATH TO FREEDOM®, HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION®, and FREEDOM GARDENS® have been claimed by Dervaes trademark machine.

Naturally, there’s been quite the uproar since this fracas began. There’s an online petition to “Cancel Trademarks on Urban Homestead and Urban Homesteading” and a Take Back Urban Home-steading(s) Facebook page. The Dervaes family has been forced to shut down its own Facebook page and issued a frustrating press release in the wake of a flood of angry phone calls and e-mails.

What a STUPID MESS®. For recent updates on this ever-evolving, increasingly infuriating story, LA Weekly, GOOD and OC Weekly are fine sources. TreeHugger’s Colleen Vanderlinen also makes a beautiful point, saying that “I just don’t understand how trademarking phrases that have been in existence since at least the 1970s (if you’re being conservative) and that they didn’t invent, protects their intellectual property. If that’s the case, I’m so going to trademark ‘Detroit gardener.’ I am one, after all. And I am totally unique.”

Although it’s not too hard to get all riled up over all of this — what’s your take? — it’s also kind of a sad. From what I know of the Dervaes family and their endeavors, they are well-liked and influential in the “UH” movement. They’ve been doing great things. Now, they’re instant villains thanks largely in part to the Internet and some questionable decision-making. Perhaps they should start a new venture with Judith Griggs of Cooks Source magazine? Or maybe they should just do the right thing and give URBAN HOMESTEADING® and URBAN HOMESTEAD® back to the people where they rightfully belong.

Via [GOOD], [TreeHugger]