S Poddar
It has emerged that an application filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office to register a trademark for her American Riviera Orchard business venture by Duchess of Sussex was refused. Herein, one of the critical limitations of trademark law became apparent: one cannot obtain exclusive rights over a geographical name.
Santa Barbara, California is often referred to as the American Riviera, and that happens to be the place where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex call home. The USPTO said it believed it did because “The geographic significance of the term when combined with the word ‘Orchard’ does not sufficiently change its geographic nature.”.
She has already launched American Riviera Orchard on a soft basis, showing everything from jams to cutlery, nut butters, placemats, and cookbooks. The website of the brand also went live on March 14 with a holding page allowing visitors to join a waiting list for updates on product availability along with any other news.
Since the soft launch, Meghan has gifted jars of her homemade strawberry jam to a small cadre of influential friends, who then post about it on Instagram, allowing the product to be socially advertised.
The review conducted by the USPTO indicated that the brand’s descriptions could fall under various trademark classes. For example, “cocktail napkins” could refer to both paper and textile products, while “cooking utensils” could be manual or electric.
Indeed, the refusal letter provided support for use of the name “American Riviera” by a different business in Santa Barbara on a candle, along with numerous citations to the common knowledge regarding Santa Barbara being known as the American Riviera. From that evidence, the USPTO determined the public would believe the products originated in, or were otherwise associated with, the geographic region.
This judgment has pointed out the position that geographic denominations must always remain free for use by any business entity concerned with that area, in order not to allow the monopoly of such terms by one subject. Moreover, the USPTO took into consideration that association with Meghan Markle, being the founder of the brand, combined further with a geographical place, was another reason in support of this decision.
Her team now has a period of three months to take care of all the issues the USPTO highlighted, including the possibility of filing a disclaimer for not taking any exclusive right over the term “American Riviera.” Further, the application continuation will require an additional fee of $700 (£532).
The Sussexes’ office sees such trademark issues as a norm of the process. They will, no doubt, answer the concerns of the USPTO and may well file a disclaimer to move on. This has come after a similar outcome with their previous attempt to trademark “Archetypes,” the name of Meghan’s podcast, which was refused last year due to possible conflicts with other pre-existing brands.
