Sometimes, people get a little trigger-happy with trademarking. That might be what happened to Gene Simmons. On June 9, 2017, he decided to trademark the “devil horns” hand gesture as his own invention. In his application, he claimed that he invented the hand movement back in 1974. Likewise, Simmons can be seen flashing the gesture on the cover of the 1977 album Love Gun.
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The famed member of the rock band KISS filed a trademark application on June 9, 2017, for the unique but indeed distinguishable hand gesture.
Did Gene Simmons Actually Invent the Devil Horns Hand Gesture?
Obviously, this is an extremely difficult thing to prove. Human beings have been making creative signage with their hands since our existence began. However, Gene Simmons seemed to be pretty dead-set on trademarking the devil horns hand gesture. The gesture became popular among fans of KISS over several decades.
Simmons claimed that he invented the “hand gesture with the index and small fingers extended upward and the thumb extended perpendicular.”
Naturally, that hand gesture is very similar to a few other hand gestures out there. For example, in American Sign Language, the sign for “I love you” is basically identical. Just as well, the University of Texas has boasted the “hook ‘em horns” hand gesture. That one looks very similar to the “devil horns” symbol.
Simmons seemed to understand how similar the hand gesture was to other gestures. He made a note in his filing that he simply wanted performing musicians, specifically, to ask permission before flashing the gesture on stage.
Gene Simmons would later abandon his attempt to trademark the devil horns hand gesture, less than two weeks after submitting the trademark application. You can’t win every battle, it seems.
It’s worth noting that while Simmons is (arguably) the most well-known rock star to use the hand gesture in question, he is not the only one, nor the first, to use it. Back in 1966, an animated John Lennon of The Beatles can be seen making a similar hand gesture on the cover of the single, “Yellow Submarine”. Just as well, a Band called Coven used a similar gesture on the album cover of their 1969 record, Witchcraft. Ronnie James Dio would also flash the gesture on occasion (with his thumb tucked in, notably) while with the band Black Sabbath.
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