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A trademark registration filed on behalf of Fark.com's owner Drew Curtis generated plenty of attention when news of it hit social media sites. The story quickly rose on Reddit, and other sites picked up on the strange but true trademark registration, filed on November 28. The cheeky news aggregator Fark wants NSFW for itself.

NSFW, for Not Safe For Work, is one of those Internet memes that seems to have been around as long as the Web has supported image viewing. Generally, it refers to images that, if seen over one's shoulder in the workplace by a particularly sensitive third party, could result in the viewer being fired.

Audio can be just as workplace-unfriendly as well. But sexual images hit a nerve with people, to the point where companies with Internet use policies make people agree not to view such content on their work computers.

NSFW has been around in general usage for years, but good luck pinning down the first time it was used. We can't imagine Curtis sending out the lawyers against anyone who forwards a link to someone with NSFW tacked on to it as a warning, should the USPTO grant the trademark.

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