American Riviera Orchard, Meghan Markle’s lifestyle business, takes yet another serious hit before a new product is released
According to DailyMail.com, Meghan Markle’s most recent trademark application was rejected last week, dealing a serious setback to her struggling American Riviera Orchard home goods company.
After prior mishaps and failures to obtain rights to her podcast brand, Archewell, last year, the Duchess of Sussex is now in a difficult situation with the US Patent and register Office (USPTO) as a result of her attempt to register her small-batch jams and other household goods.
‘The American Riviera’ is the moniker given to the stretch of beach that surrounds the Sussexes’ Santa Barbara, California, house. The Patent Office declined her application on August 31st, stating that companies are not permitted to trademark geographic places.
A number of other issues with her submission, such as her apparent inability to sign the appropriate forms, were also listed in the rejection.
The Duchess received criticism from the USPTO for providing ambiguous product descriptions that might have been classified under several different trademarks.
The office stated that the “cooking utensils” for her brand might be electric or manual, and the suggested “cocktail napkins” may be either paper or textile—two distinct categories.The rejection even contained a screen grab of a product that was already being sold by another Santa Barbara company under the name “American Riviera.”
The screen grab indicated that a ‘American Riviera’ candle costs $34.95, according to the website sbcoastalcandles.com.
The Office stated in its submission on Saturday that “registration is refused because the applied-for mark is primarily geographically descriptive.”
