Meghan Markle As Ever: Duchess of Sussex’s trademark trouble over lifestyle brand

By Victoria Ward

The Duchess of Sussex has again been told to amend the trademark application for her As Ever lifestyle brand over a series of errors.

Meghan has been given three months to respond in order to avoid having to abandon her attempts to register the trademark.

She has already been forced to rename the business because its original name, American Riviera Orchard (ARO), was reliant on a geographical location.

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The latest setback could delay the launch of the business, which the Duchess has announced is coming this spring, and which will sell items including edible flower sprinkles, dried biscuit mixes, teas and a “fruit spread”.

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Official documents reveal the As Ever trademark application could not be verified because a statement confirming intent was left unsigned.

Various categories also needed updating as they were considered “indefinite or too broad”; namely “spoons for serving jams and fruit preserves”, “textile napkins” and “crystallised sugar for decoration”.

There is some good news for the Duchess, however, as the US Patent and Trademark Office said it had found no conflicting trademarks that would bar As Ever’s registration.

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Concerns had been raised that the As Ever logo, a palm tree flanked by two hummingbirds, was the official symbol of Porreres, a small Majorcan village.

But although the town’s mayor, Xisca Mora, claimed that Meghan’s new logo was “a total copy” of its coat of arms, there was no official trademark clash.

A New York-based clothing brand called As Ever also previously warned that it was “exploring all possibilities” but admitted it did not own the trademark.

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Like Ms Mora, the company acknowledged that it did not have a “behemoth of lawyers and money” to go up against the Duchess and her business partner, Netflix.

The brand is being launched in tandem with her eight-part Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, which was met with savage reviews from critics but reached the streaming giant’s top 10 programs globally last week.

The Duchess’s efforts to launch her own business suffered a huge setback last September when the patent office refused the American Riviera Orchard application, warning that businesses could not trademark geographical locations.

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It noted that American Riviera was a “common nickname” for Santa Barbara, and said the addition of the word Orchard made little difference.

The regulatory body also previously warned the descriptions of the Duchess’s products could fit into multiple trademark categories, stating that “cocktail napkins” could be paper or textiles, while “cooking utensils” could be manual or electric.

It highlighted an example of another Santa Barbara company using the term “American Riviera” to sell a specific candle and warned that the cursive ARO logo, thought to have been designed by Meghan, was so highly stylised it was unclear.

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The problems forced the Duchess to pivot, renaming the brand As Ever and launching new social media profiles and websites.

Meanwhile, Gwyneth Paltrow has defended the Duchess’s decision to set up a lifestyle brand.

The actress turned wellness guru, 52, runs her own multi-million dollar lifestyle brand, Goop, which sells products including egg-shaped stones and $US 80 (approx. $125) candles.

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Paltrow, who like the Sussexes lives in Montecito, California, told Vanity Fair that when “there’s noise about certain women in the culture, I do have, always, a strong instinct to stand up for them”.

She added: “I was raised to see other women as friends, not foes.

“I think there’s always more than enough to go around. Everybody deserves an attempt at everything that they want to try.”

The Duchess’s office has been contacted for comment.

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