Snooki, The Situation of 'Jersey Shore' aim to trademark their nicknames

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Paul "Pauly D" Delvecchio arrive at Spike TV's Video Game Awards in Los Angeles on Dec. 12. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Beltway bureaucrats will soon grapple with a question straight from MTV's "Jersey Shore": Does "Snooki" merit a trademark?

Er, why would the Guido-and-proud reality star, nee Nicole Polizzi, want her nickname trademarked? "This is her chance to establish herself as Snooki," said D.C. trademark lawyer Chris Ott, "to make a few bucks while her name is still hot."

Not every nickname requires the magic TM symbol. You need a product to put it on. Polizzi filed papers with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office to use Snooki for books and showbizzy gigs.

"She's trying to prevent other people from headlining at clubs as Snooki," said Ott, of the firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, who is not involved in her case. It's a shrewd move, Ott told us: Recently, three companies applied for rights to the nickname of her housemate Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino -- two for clothes (including "I love The Situation" thongs), one for cologne -- and it's not clear which, if any, had Sorrentino's blessing.

Their co-star Paul "Pauly D" Delvecchio also applied for a trademark -- but Jenni "JWoww" Farley has not, which Ott found shocking: Of all "Shore"-ites, she's got the most unique brand. "'JWoww' is a term that did not exist before," she came along, he said. "It's like Kodak or Xerox."