If Patois is not a language, who owns the words?

I recently read about a dispute a dispute between IRIE-FM in Jamaica and IRIE-TV in the USA. After reading the article  I left with the question who owns the word IRIE. Can the word IRIE be copyrighted? Would it be like copyrighting/trademarking the word COOL? If it comes to court in the US would they use the dictionary to settle this. The word irie is Jamaica patois. Would they use a Jamaica dictionary? Aleast there is no dispute on the spelling of IRIE like many other Jamaican patois words.Even the word patois is sometimes spellled patwa or patwah. This one could be a tricky one.