Trademark issue is all thumbs

[snopes]

Let's get this straight: Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel trademarked their thumbs, so Disney-ABC Domestic Television, which owns "At the Movies With Ebert & Roeper," must ban the thumbs-up/thumbs-down ratings until it works out its impasse over Ebert's expired contract?

How do you trademark a thumb?

This sounds like a matter for Intellectual Property Answer Man:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...,6200935.story

[diddy]

As I understand it, its the expression "Two Thumbs Up". The gesture itself though is far too generic and widely used to be trademarked. You really cannot easily argue hat anybody is going to interpret a thumbs up gesture and confuse it with a critics rating system.