Following the backlash over the move, Simmons has now reportedly withdrawn the application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. hennemusic has more details: Simmons has apparently reconsidered whether he might have valid trademark rights to the hand gesture, according to Forbes, while the 67-year-old rocker has expressly abandoned the request filed on June 9 - as indicated on his application with the US government department.

 

The KISS bassist was seeking registration of the hand gesture itself, rather than an image or depiction of the gesture, describing the mark in the application as "a hand gesture with the index and small fingers extended upward and the thumb extended perpendicular." Read more here.