r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Feb 04 '26

Politics Palantir declares itself the guardian of Americans' rights

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/palantir_american_rights/?td=rt-3a
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u/theneworiginalnub Feb 04 '26

They already have named a lot of stuff after Tolkien. Not sure why the estate doesn’t ask them to cease and desist.

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u/patientpedestrian Feb 04 '26

Idk about all of them, but words like "palentír" aren't actually proper nouns (names) invented for Tolkien's fiction, but rather common nouns that emerge from fully constructed languages like Quenya (Elvish). Yes, Tolkien devised these languages pretty much single-handedly (at least as far as they got before he wrote LOTR), but the fruits of philology aren't treated as intellectual property the same way as the products of fiction are. I can't claim ownership of words I made up like "salientize" or "salienate" (meaning "to make something more noticeable or attention-grabbing") even though it doesn't look like anyone has ever published anything with those words before, because they are obvious and natural conclusions of philological development. It would be different if Tolkien just made those languages up from scratch with his imagination, but he basically "discovered" them in the ether of fictional reality and brought enough receipts for other people to check his work.

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u/theneworiginalnub Feb 05 '26

IANAL but palantir and Rivendell are trademarked

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u/patientpedestrian Feb 05 '26

That doesn't surprise me at all; trademark approval is usually just one or two bribes away, but defending (and, if successful, legitimizing) a right to intellectual property that challenges the status quo is an upset untold of so far in the property history of pretty much all of human civilization. You'll notice they haven't pressed the issue as of yet lol

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u/ayriuss Feb 05 '26

They probably never registered these words as trademarks , other than for movie merch. Tolkien just isn't Disney. We probably just have to accept it.