This is more to thwart competitors than capture the cultural zeitgeist.
You might have rolled your eyes when Apple mentioned that the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro could do “slofies,” but the company is taking things slightly more seriously. Apple has applied to the USPTO for a trademark on the term “Slofie” in terms of “downloadable computer software for use in capturing and recording video.” Don’t worry, it’s not trying to own the cultural landscape — rather, this is largely to prevent app developers and phone makers from ‘borrowing’ the term for their own features.
The company doesn’t refer to the clips as “slofies” outside of its marketing for the new iPhones. It’s not that heavily invested in the concept, thankfully. However, the trademark application is something of a hedge. It doesn’t want to be caught off-guard if the term ever catches on. Not that we’d expect it to — “slofie” is about as likely to happen as “fetch” was in Mean Girls.
