It looks like all the controversy and drama was just too much for Benny and Rafi Fine of The Fine Bros.
Here’s a quick recap. The Fine Brothers were slammed and attacked after they decided to trademark the generic word “REACT”. A lawyer even rallied Reddit to fight The Fine Bros’ trademark.
As a result of the internet firestorm, The Fine Bros lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers – and made (negative) international headlines.
The Fine Brothers Announce That They Will Rescind ALL Their Trademark Applications
The Fine Bros went on Medium and penned a short blog post about the situation.
They apologized for their controversial actions. “It could have been used for wrong.”
They finally admitted that their generic trademark applications could have been used to police and control online content.
Because of this, they took the very bold step of rescinding ALL their “REACT” related applications and trademarks.
The lawyer that vowed to fight the trademark confirmed the story. He said that Benny Fine handed him proof that the trademarks for “Teens React”, “Kids React”, “Elders React”, “React”, “Parents React”, “Adults React”, “Celebrities React”, “Try Not To Laugh”, “Kids VS Food”, “Lyric Breakdown”, “Do They Know It” and “People VS Technology were officially abandoned.
The Fine Bros Completely END Their React World Licensing System
In another shocking announcement, they also said that their React World licensing system was going to be discontinued, as well.
They even deleted the announcement video from their YouTube channel.
The Fine Bros Promise to Reverse EVERY Old Content ID Takedown
The Fine Bros have previously taken down and/or claimed other people’s reaction videos via Content ID.
What’s Content ID? When videos are uploaded onto YouTube, they are checked and compared to a database. The video and audio are then checked for copyright violations by searching for matches.
This process is mostly automatic, and can bring up some false positives. If your video has been wrongly removed or claimed by The Fine Bros, you can now email the duo with the subject line “False Claim”.
The Fine Bros Apologize & Look to the Future
The pair said that they understood why people were so angry. They said that their takedown-heavy reputation probably made people a bit suspicious of their true intentions. “Those were mistakes,” they wrote.
They said that people were completely right to question them.
“This has been a hard week,” they wrote. “Thank you for hearing us out. Our plan is to keep making great content.”