Celebrities trying to trademark words they shouldn’t, it’s a practice that will never end. Meghan Markle has become the latest big name to attempt the feat.
The Duchess of Sussex made an application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office last month to trademark the word “archetypes”.
That’s because that’s the name of her debut Spotify podcast – if her trademark is somehow successful, it would mean that Meghan and Prince Harry’s production company, Archewell Audio, would own the trademark instead of Spotify.
It’s surely unlikely to be approved though, considering “archetypes” has been present in the English language going all the way back to the 1540s.
Meghan unveiled plans for her new podcast last month. “This is how we talk about women – the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us… But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives?” she said in the trailer.
“This is Archetypes – the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert the labels that try to hold women back. I’ll have conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape our narratives. And I’ll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.”
Meghan’s appeal is reminiscent of the unbelievable time Kylie Jenner tried to trademark “Kylie” when the much more talented Kylie Minogue was out in the world. Jenner attempted to register the mark “KYLIE” in 2015 for “advertising services” and “endorsement services”.
Minogue’s representatives filed their opposition the following year, citing possible confusion from such a trademark. As they put it so well, Minogue was an “internationally renowned performing artist, humanitarian and breast cancer activist” while Jenner was dismissed as a “secondary reality television personality” who had drawn criticism for her “photographic exhibitionism and controversial posts” on social media.
This is a developing story and we’ll give further updates.
