Beyoncé and Jay-Z filed an application to trademark the name of their first daughter, Blue Ivy, just a week after she was born on January 7, 2012. According to their application, the trademark was to be owned by BGK Trademark Holdings, a Delaware-based company.
The application prohibited the usage of 'Blue Ivy' by anyone as the name of their product, including but not limited to perfumes, makeup accessories, diaper bags, sports accessories, hair sprays, and many other accessories. The exhaustive list of all the products is now available to read on the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Meanwhile, a wedding planner based in Massachusetts, Veronica Morales, owned a company called Blue Ivy Events before Beyoncé's daughter was born. Morales filed a trademark registration for her company from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) the same year as Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Due to the conflict of interests, she filed a notice of opposition with The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), arguing that Beyoncé and Jay-Z wouldn't be allowed to have the required trademark.
Veronica Morales' notice of opposition against Beyoncé's trademark application explored
In response to wedding planner Veronica's legal notice, Beyoncé reasoned that it would be illogical to think that people would confuse a wedding planning business with her daughter, whom she described as a cultural icon.
In reply, Veronica Morales stated that Beyoncé and her husband never wanted to use 'Blue Ivy' for commercial purposes but were trademarking it just to stop others from doing the same. Veronica furnished proof of that by referring to an October 2013 Vanity Fair interview in which Jay-Z stated that he wanted to get the trademark to stop others from profiting from his daughter's name.
“People wanted to make products based on our child’s name, and you don’t want anybody trying to benefit off your baby’s name. It wasn’t for us to do anything; as you see, we haven’t done anything. First of all, it’s a child, and it bothers me when there’s no [boundaries]. "
Jay-Z continued:
"I come from the streets, and even in the most atrocious sh*it we were doing, we had lines: no kids, no mothers— there was respect there. But [now] there’s no boundaries. For somebody to say, This person had a kid—I’m gonna make a f*ckin’ stroller with that kid’s name. It’s, like, where’s the humanity?”
After eight long years, the TTAB finally proclaimed Beyoncé and Jay-Z victorious and gave its final verdict on July 6, 2020. According to the TTAB, the case by Veronica Morales was "unnecessary and a waste of time."
In fact, the TTAB noted that Veronica Morales couldn't provide any evidence suggesting that people might confuse her business with the daughter of two of the biggest celebrities in the industry. Finally, the TTAB didn't consider Jay-Z's interview with Vanity Fair permissible evidence to prove the duo's intention behind trademarking their daughter's name.
In other news, Blue Ivy is the second-youngest person in the history of the Grammys to win the award. At just nine, she bagged the prestigious award in the category of Best Music Video for Brown Skin Girl. She has also performed with her mother at several events, especially during her Renaissance World Tour (2023).