Star

The bassist withdrew his application to trademark the symbol late last month (Jun17) after receiving backlash from fans and celebrities like Sharon Osbourne, Nikki Sixx and Ronnie James Dio’s widow, and now his Kiss sidekick is weighing in on the controversy, admitting he has no idea what Gene was thinking.
“Well, you know, Gene elicits some very strong reactions from people,” the rocker told the Loudwire Podcast, “and what he does he does for the reasons that only he knows. So I can’t really say that I have really any thought about it.
“It was really something that he wanted to pursue, and the reaction was how people felt about it. So I don’t know why he pulled it, and I don’t know why he started it.”
Simmons initially applied to trademark the symbol for “entertainment, namely, live performances by a musical artist”, and “personal appearances by a musical artist”.
Dio’s widow Wendy criticised Simmons for attempting to trademark the hand sign, telling TheWrap, “To try to make money off of something like this is disgusting. It belongs to everyone – it doesn’t belong to anyone. It’s a public domain, it shouldn’t be trademarked.”

Jason Herndon