Ten years ago, Rhea Drysdale, who I interviewed here, defended the SEO industry by stopping an individual from trademarking "SEO." I have stories on this from ten years ago on Search Engine Land named "Meet The 25-Year-Old Who Saved “SEO” From Being Trademarked" and here named "Why The SEO Industry Is Special."

Here is the story from Rhea's blog named SEO Trademark Registration Terminated. She wrote:

Two years ago I set out on what would become one of the biggest challenges in my life to date. It ranks up there with starting Outspoken Media, chairing a non-profit and getting married. On April 24, 2008 I filed my notice of opposition to Jason Gambert’s “SEO” trademark application. On March 11, 2010, I won. It took two years, $17,004.33 and an untold amount of frustration and self-doubt to get through this.

I am not going to go through all of the history, you can read them in any of those posts. But Rhea is still here, still fighting the battle and still caring for the industry.

Forum discussion at Twitter.