Jon Rothstein has reportedly filed for a trademark on the phrase, ‘This is March’

For better or worse, CBS Sports reporter Jon Rothstein is known online as much for his catchphrases and running gags as for his ability to break news. So it makes sense, in a bizarro kind of way, that Rothstein has reportedly filed to trademark his signature phrase, “This is March.”

Reporter @jonrothstein has filed to trademark the phrase "This is March." in the apparel category, @darrenheitner did the filing.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 8, 2018

Minutes after the tweet from ESPN’s Darren Rovell reporting the news, Rothstein appeared to confirm the story by tweeting, as you might expect, “This is March.”

This is March. https://t.co/R4B9Vg3a44

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 8, 2018

For years, Rothstein has tweeted and tweeted and tweeted the same collection of expressions (“Stay hungry, stay humble,” “The epitome of brutality,” “Virginia basketball. A thing of beauty,” “Death, taxes, ___” and so, so many more), inspiring an online community of what Deadspin’s David Roth calls “Jonposters.”

It has never been entirely clear how self-aware Rothstein is about the absurdity of his Twitter presence, but his decision to file for a trademark suggests he is not only in on the joke and anxious to capitalize on it.

We at Awful Announcing are not copyright attorneys (shocking, right?), so we can’t really assess Rothstein’s chances of being granted this trademark, but he certainly has quantity on his side. Only eight days into the current month, Rothstein has tweeted some version of “This is March” 17 times, and we haven’t even hit most major-conference tournaments, let alone the NCAA Tournament. We give him an A+ for consistency and a D- for creativity.

Maybe once Rothstein secures that trademark on “This is March,” he can nail down that elusive date with actor Minka Kelly.

https://twitter.com/BenG412/status/822300717784375296

Or, you know, maybe not.