Meghan Markle is facing even MORE drama with her ill-fated As Ever push!
No, you’re not about to get déjà vu with this story… this is a SECOND trademark issue impacting the same brand name!
So, as you may recall, the Suits alum got into big trouble with an NYC-based family-owned clothing company when she tried to pull the trigger on updating her lifestyle brand’s name from American Riviera Orchard to “As Ever”. That small business cried foul, and the whole thing turned into a big dust-up. …Which was actually the second big hurdle Prince Harry‘s wife faced with this rebrand after first being accused of swiping her company’s new logo from a Spanish town’s coat of arms! Wild.
But buckle up, y’all, because there’s a third issue at play, too. According to DailyMail.com, which obtained documents this past weekend from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Duchess of Sussex actually did try to begin selling products under the “As Ever” name back in 2022, as she has previously claimed. But she ran into trouble a few months after pushing for a trademark back then… because a Chinese clothing company already owned the name! Oops!
Related: Did Meghan Markle ALSO Copy Pamela Anderson’s Cooking Show?? Girl…
Per the DM report, Meg’s lawyers initially applied for permission to sell under the “As Ever” name back in October of 2022. But in July 2023, their petition to the USPTO received what the office called a “partial rejection.” That’s because Meghan’s intention to sell clothing (among other products) under the “As Ever” name conflicted directly with Chinese brand ASEVER that already had the trademark for clothes!
ASEVER, which DM reports is based in Shenzhen, China, supplies clothing for international companies, including H&M. And since Meghan’s 2022 trademark petition included clothing as a potential sector under which she wanted to sell, the trademark office rejected it as being too “similar” to the Chinese brand already in existence!
Citing “clothing category Class 25” in their summer 2023 response, the USPTO fired off this remark to the actress’ legal team in rejecting Meg’s application:
“The marks are identical in sound and virtually identical in appearance and are thus confusingly similar for the purposes of determining likelihood of confusion. … Registration of the applied-for mark is refused because of a likelihood of confusion.”
Damn!
Fast forward six months from that point, to January 2024, and Markle’s lawyers filed a revised application to once again trademark the brand name “As Ever.” But per the news outlet, there was one HUGE distinction in their second filing attempt: they took out any mention of wanting to sell clothing. And because of that, their second attempt at a trademark application was eventually approved!
Here’s the thing, though: Meghan likely can’t EVER sell any clothing under the “As Ever” brand.
An unnamed El Lay-based trademark lawyer said this to the DM about it on Sunday night:
“If she sells clothing under the As Ever brand she risks being sued.”
Yeah. Ever. Not unless she wants to get sued by the Chinese company! (Maybe even that NYC-based family biz, too.) So many speed bumps, y’all. Sooooo many speed bumps.
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[Image via MEGA/WENN]
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