The Duchess of Sussex has asked US authorities for more time to get her lifestyle brand off the ground.
Meghan’s legal team has asked US authorities for an extension in her attempt to secure a trademark for her American Riviera Orchard brand.
She first applied for the trademark for her jams and homemade goods in the summer – but the bid was rejected in August due to issues with the filing.
Meghan was then given three months to address errors and challenges to the application.
She has now asked for another three months to complete this. If the deadline is missed, the application will need to be started again.
Meghan first lodged documents with the US Patent and Trademark Office earlier this year but suffered an embarrassing blow when the forms were not filled in correctly.
Remarkably, the application wasn’t even signed and she didn’t send enough money.
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Meghan has asked US authorities for more time to get her lifestyle brand off the ground
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Many of her celebrity pals, including Kris Jenner, have sampled the jam
Meghan Markle launches long-awaited luxury lifestyle brand
Another firm owning the trademark ‘Royal Riviera’ also challenged the application.
Official papers said: ‘The owner, Harry & David, is an American institution, founded in 1934, with annual sales of £1.7billion and 3,300 staff.’
It added that the protest was ‘deemed relevant’ due to ‘likelihood of confusion’ and has already been referred to US Patent Attorney’s Office examining attorney Marco Wright.
Meghan’s legal team, led by top US attorney Marjorie Witter Norman, applied to the Patent and Trademark Office in the States in March for legal protection to exclusively trade using the name American Riviera Orchard.
The duchess has been told that she cannot have exclusive rights to American Riviera because it is a commonly used place name to describe the California coast where she and Harry live.
Experts at the US government department spent weeks poring over the papers and rejected the application on a raft of grounds.
They include applying to market goods in 19 different classes but only sending enough cash to cover 17 trading groups. Applications to sell items like gardening equipment, household goods, soap dispensers and linen were too broad and must be clarified.
The original papers were also unverified because they were not signed by Meghan or her team and her office was told to send another £533 to cover the shortfall.
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Meghan and Harry, pictured during a visit to Colombia last month, have also reportedly ‘struggled’ to find a CEO for Meghan’s new home goods and lifestyle venture. However, sources close to the Duchess have insisted she is happy to run the business herself
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Chrissy Teigen and her husband John Legend were among the A-listers to join Meghan Markle’s select circle of ‘jamfluencers’ who were given a chance to sample her new product earlier this year
A source close to the Sussexes told DailyMail.com in August that some back and forth with USPTO is ‘routine and expected when filing for trademarks’ and that they believed Meghan would be filing a response with the office soon.
This is the second time her trademark applications have been shot down.
In August 2023, the Duchess abandoned a bid to get her podcast Archewell trademarked after the USPTO found that a self-help blog by the same name had already made a successful application.
The Sussexes have also reportedly ‘struggled’ to find a CEO for Meghan’s new home goods and lifestyle venture – although sources close to the Duchess have insisted she is happy running the business herself.
American Rivera Orchard soft launched earlier this year as a lifestyle brand that will sell products such as jams and cookbooks
And she is also having to deal with a constant revolving door of staff.
In June, the Duchess sent friend and actor Nacho Figueras a PR package containing some dog biscuits and a jar of raspberry jam from her new brand.
In April, the mother-of-two sent a number of strawberry jam jars, which were part of an initial batch of 50, to celebrity pals, including Kris Jenner, Mindy Kaling and Chrissy Teigen.
The timing of Nacho’s posts promoting Meghan’s jam caused outrage among royal fans, with the Argentinian’s social media post being inundated with comments declaring him ‘shameful’ and ‘tasteless’.
It is thought Nacho, who appeared to be in New York at the time, posted the pictures showcasing the gifts at about 11pm in the city, and about 4am in the UK, meaning British viewers saw the posts just hours before the king’s birthday parade.
Months later, the only sign of activity has been the jars of jam and dog biscuits sent to the duchess’s friends and social media influencers.
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Meghan has sent products, including jam and dog biscuits, to some friends but plans are now afoot to start with a rosé wine
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Meghan’s close friend and former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer was one of the lucky 50 to have received a limited edition jar of the Duchess’ new American Riviera Orchard strawberry jam
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The Patent Office is now querying the way the letter ‘O’ for Orchard is depicted on the intricate and swirling logo for the company. The launch would boost the fortunes of Meghan and Harry following the end of their $20million Spotify deal
Apparently plans are well in progress for Meghan’s ‘lifestyle brand’, which will be inspired by the couple’s enviable life in their £10million mansion on the Californian coast.
However, the Daily Mail revealed in June that the much-publicised jams will not be the first out of the traps as a money spinner for the brand. Rather, a source told the publication that the priority is instead to launch a rosé wine.
Meanwhile, Meghan has reportedly wrapped up filming for her new cooking and home show, which is being produced by Sony Pictures Television’s The Intellectual Property Corporation and is said to be intended to coincide with the launch of her lifestyle brand.
The project in Montecito, where Meghan and Harry live, is yet to receive a title or air date. It will ‘celebrate the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship’ and is part of the couple’s $100million Netflix deal.
Speaking about the new project, a Hollywood source told The Daily Beast: ‘It all went well, and it is in the can.’
The project commenced filming days after Meghan sent out exclusive pots of homemade jam from her brand to her nearest and dearest.
A film permit application exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com showed filming took place in two separate locations.
In April, Meghan spent the day surrounded by flowers from Florabundance, a florist in Carpinteria, which is a 10-minute drive from Montecito.
The following day, production trucks lined the driveway of a $5million property, set in eight acres filled with avocado trees and lemon groves, located in a gated community in Montecito for filming.
