MEGHAN Markle is banned from selling clothes under her new As Ever lifestyle brand, court documents reveal.
A cut-price Chinese clothing company and a family-run New York-based retailer are among the fashion outlets with the same name.
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Meghan Markle announced her re-brand last weekCredit: Instagram
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As Ever is due to launch next month
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Meghan’s lifestyle brand will sell food products, including jamCredit: NETFLIX
It comes after the Duchess of Sussex, 43, was forced this month to re-brand American Riviera Orchard – originally announced a year ago – due to trademark issues.
And the mayor of Porreres in Majorca said she is considering legal action over Meg’s new logo apparently copying the town’s centuries’ old coat of arms.
As Ever – which sells food products including jams and dog biscuits – will launch next month to coincide with new Netflix cookery show With Love Meghan.
The Mail on Sunday has revealed documents filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office in October 2022 by Meg’s legal team applied for permission to sell aprons, as well as other clothing items.
But USPTO issued a 145-page “partial rejection” of her trademark application the following July saying she couldn’t sell clothes due to her company’s name being similar to Chinese “fast fashion” outlet ASEVER.
It supplies high street stores in the UK, including H&M.
USPTO – which cited “clothing category Class 25” – said: “The marks are identical in sound and virtually identical in appearance and are thus confusingly similar for the purposes of determining likelihood of confusion.”
It added: “Registration of the applied-for mark is refused because of a likelihood of confusion.”
In January last year, Meg’s lawyers submitted a revised application and As Ever was approved for trademark.
A trademark lawyer told the Mail: “If she sells clothing under the As Ever brand she risks being sued.”
It comes after the owner of New York-based clothing firm As Ever said he feared he was powerless to act after Meg used his brand’s name.
Mark Kolski, 58, was stunned after the former Suits actress broadcast her news as he has been running a “one-man band” clothing company with the same name for the past seven years.
Speaking to The Sun he said he is refusing to change his company’s title and “exploring all possibilities”.
He said: “I’m a very small business, it’s a family-run operation. I’m essentially a one man band.
“This new venture has the power and money of Netflix behind it.
“Even if I wanted to do something I don’t think I have the behemoth of lawyers and money that are behind this.”
Mr Kolski said he doesn’t own the trademark to the name but believes he has common law rights to sell clothing using it since he has been doing business as “As Ever” since 2017.
Meanwhile, The Sun revealed the mayor of a small Majorcan town has accused Meg of “plagiarism” over similarities between her logo and their 14th century coat of arms.
Fans were quick to spot the As Ever design was astonishingly similar to the Coat of Arms of Porreres in Majorca.
An expert blasted the move as “another headache” for Meghan’s team, and potentially “copyright issues”.
The Sun understands that the logo for ‘As ever’ was drawn up after a “comprehensive global searches of registered trademarks”.
The logo incorporates a palm tree as a nod to the couple’s home in Montecito, while the two hummingbirds are said to be a favourite of Prince Harry’s.
The Duke claimed he saw a hummingbird after the death of Queen Elizabeth.
The shape enclosing the birds and tree was designed to “create a unique and personal emblem”.
But Nick Ede, a brand and culture expert, told The Sun: “Yes the logo that she has used for the new brand As Ever is clearly very similar to the coat of arms for an area of Majorca.
“This is another brand set back as it looks like its been copied rather than a whole new brand identity created.
“This may potentially create copyright issues and a further headache for Meghan and her team.”
The Sun has approached reps for the Sussexes for comment.
Meghan Markle keeps ‘reinventing’ herself for cash while clinging to royal links AND using kids for clout
By Ryan Merrifield
FICKLE Meghan Markle has to keep reinventing herself while clinging to her royal links – and she is shamelessly using her kids for clout, an expert claims.
The Duchess of Sussex announced a shock name change for her American Rivera Orchard lifestyle brand today.
Announced less than a year ago, the project is now called As Ever, ahead of its official launch to tie in with new Netflix cookery show With Love, Meghan next month.
In her Instagram announcement, the duchess, 43, said the change meant she was no longer “limited” to selling products from the part of Santa Barbara where she grew up.
But she failed to touch on the trademark issues that have dogged the launch, with officials saying she cannot have exclusive rights to “American Rivera” going forward.
Royal author Hugo Vickers told The Sun: “I think there’s a lot of sort of jumping in and then rethinking.”
He said this reflects much of the ventures Meghan and Harry, 40, have undertaken since stepping down as working royals in 2020.
“It’s always this sort of rebranding of themselves, and reinventing themselves so that they’re always in view of the public…” he explained.
“It does all seem a little bit…how do you put it? Incredibly commercial.
“It’s obviously aimed at marketing. But from what I read, all this has happened quite suddenly.
“There’s lots of applications being put in and things being registered, and so forth.
“I think it’s all a little bit sort of done on the hoof, to be honest.”
THe rebrand announcement video – filmed presumably in the Sussexes’ garden in Montecito – features Harry’s voice playfully telling his wife at the start “it’s recording” before she giggles.
Mr Vickers, pointing out the duke also featured briefly in the brand’s introductory video, said he’s still essentially the main draw.
“I was going to say ‘product placing’, but ‘Meghan placing’, I mean, we watch her because she’s married to Prince Harry,” he said.
“That’s the reason we watch her, and really the only reason, to be quite honest.”
He added: “I rather wonder what will happen if ever the day comes when she doesn’t need him. But that’s all in the future.
“I’ve said this a million times, but that is why we watch them – because he is Prince Harry…he’s put her on the map.
2She was quite well known before she got involved with him. But she’s extremely well known as a result of having married Prince Harry. That’s what it’s all about.”
The As Ever website also features a rare photo of their daughter Lilibet, and Mr Vickers said this, unfortunately, feels like a commercial decision as well.
“I’m personally rather against people using their children for advertising purposes, especially when their children are officially members of the Royal Family,” he said.
“They’ve been given princely titles. So, once again it’s exploiting the royal side, and also…we don’t often see the children.
“In fact, do we ever see them full on? We see the back of the head, occasionally, or we see a hand, or we see something. It’s all rather tantalising.
“It’s been like that right since the start. So I suppose that when they do appear it’s like gosh, there they are, they exist.”
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Mark Kolski, 58, owns a clothing brand with the same name – As EverCredit: Madewell
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Nick Ede, a brand and culture expert, said this could be a ‘headache’ for the DuchessCredit: The Sun
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The As Ever logo, which has come under fire for being similar to
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The new Netflix show airs next monthCredit: Netflix
