If you thought that time Kylie Jenner tried to trademark her first name when Kylie Minogue existed was bad, there’s now a far more egregious example.
A man has attempted – for some inexplicable reason – to trademark ‘Always Was Always Will Be’, the term that has recognised that First Nation people have occupied and cared for their country for thousands of years.
First Nations-owned fashion brand Clothing the Gaps called out the man’s trademark attempt on social media, sharing screenshots of the application which was filed by Christopher Michaelides all the way back on January 26th 2021 (yes, on Invasion Day).
“We became aware and outraged of this application in April last year (2021),” Clothing the Gaps wrote. “Since then we’ve had our trademark lawyers do further research into this and send us a breakdown of what this means.
In summary, it’s unlikely this trademark application will be accepted however, this does not make it okay. Certain Aboriginal phrases belong to our whole Community, not individuals. It’s particularly shameful when non-indigenous people try to take ownership of our language, history and struggle.”
If the trademark attempt is somehow successful, it would give Michaelides exclusive rights to sell clothes and merchandise featuring the the term. After his application was objected to last year, Michaelides asked for a review in November. A deadline of July 12th 2022 has been put in place for the application to be accepted.
There are reasons that his application remains highly unlikely to be accepted though: he would need to provide a lot of evidence to contradict the examiner’s conclusion, including sales figures, numerous examples of the slogan being used on his products, and advertising figures.
