April 7th, 2023

If you are familiar with EDM Music in any form, you have come across the term PLUR. For Those who are uninitiated, it stands for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect.

PLUR is a concept well-known throughout the EDM community, having roots in the 90’s techno and trance scenes. PLUR is so well known it has variations such as PLURB, PLURR. Then there is the PLUR Handshake, a ritualistic handshake that involves trading bracelets called Kandi.

PLUR is the standard, the mantra, the ideal upheld by the Trance and EDM communities. Today we find that very term under attack. They have asserted that PLUR is THEIR trademarked property and have protected it by law. This trademark opens up the EDM community that uses this term to DMCA takedown requests at the whim of a corporation. The long-reaching impact of this trademark is that the corporation could potentially issue a DMCA takedown for anything on the internet that contains the phrase PLUR. Blogs, your own artwork, pictures of anything that contain the word PLUR, they can potentially censor the community at large.

Why is all this important? On February 10th 2023, a corporation was granted a United States Federal Trademark on the term PLUR for usage on “Goods and Services:  clothing.”

This is perhaps the most non-PLUR move that could have ever been made by a company who claims to “keep the spirit of PLUR alive.” If you have not guessed the culprit, They are the largest promoter of live EDM music in North America, Insomniac. They are the powerhouse behind some of the large spectacle EDM events and brands like Electric Daisy Carnival.

I am absolutely not a copyright or trademark lawyer by any means, however I was able to find the following information on the web:

You can’t trademark:

• Proper names or likenesses without consent from the person
• Generic terms, phrases, or the like
• Government symbols or insignia
• Vulgar or disparaging words or phrases
• The likeness of a U.S. President, former or current
• Immoral, deceptive, or scandalous words or symbols
• Sounds or short motifs. These are covered by copyright instead

PLUR, starting in the early 1990’s has been well documented, and while it is not known to everyone, it is known to enough people to have a cited Wikipedia article, appears on dictionary.com and a quick search in your favorite search engine will certainly turn up results pertaining to PLUR. A DJ in the early 1990’s turned promoter named Frankie Bones is the most likely origin of the term, but he admits the original term he used was PLUM. PLUR has since passed into the common lexicon of millions of trance and EDM fans worldwide. It is the standard that we hold ourselves to as a community.

I would argue that PLUR with a 40+ year history of documented use would fall into the category of Generic terms or phrases, but I am fearful for the future of PLUR. Is it time to abandon the term? Come up with an alternate? Or can we fight it?

I call upon anyone in the EDM Family with Trademark law experience in the United States to look into how this trademark can be invalidated.

PLUR belongs to everyone, NOT to a corporation.