Hollywood Celebrity Couple Trademarks Their Baby's Name, ' Blue Ivy'

The Hollywood  superstar couple, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, have filed a trademark application to their month-old baby’s name,’Blue Ivy’, to stop the use of Blue Ivy's name by others.

Image from here

Image from here

According to Reuters, the application to trademark Blue Ivy Carter's name, filed by BGK Trademark Holdings (Beyoncé's company) is currently pending but will likely be approved because, as the parents are legally authorized to trademark the names of their minor children.

While the Patent Office looks fondly on attempts to trademark the name of one's own child, attempts to do the same with the names of other people's kids are another story, as two designers learned when they sought just days after ’Blue Ivy's’ birth  to trademark the baby's name for their own use. Applications from fashion designer Joseph Mbeh to patent "Blue Ivy Carter NYC" and by an unnamed designer to trademark "Blue Ivy Carter Glory IV" for a fragrance line were denied by the Patent Office, which noted in its decision that the name belonged to a "very famous infant" and consumers would wrongly assume that any products bearing the name had been approved by Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

The trademark would "protect against others using the child's name as a brand of merchandise in the same marketplace," so it will not impact the "Blue Ivy" trademark held by a clothing boutique in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The store filed to trademark its name on January 19, 2011, a year before Beyonce and Jay made the name famous. They received approval on August 23 — five days before Beyoncé announced her pregnancy at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Since  the trademark forestalls competitors from using the child's name and or third parties from attempting to sell the baby's name back to the couple, they are likely trying to protect what they rightfully own or created!

Author: Valli Shobhana