Meryl Streep joins league of celebrities trademarking their names

Meryl Streep, the most celebrated actress of her generation, has filed an application to trademark her name.

The application was filed with US Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, records show. It requests that the name Meryl Streep be trademarked for “entertainment services,” movie appearances, speaking engagements and autographs.

Streep, 68, last week extended her record to 21 Academy Award nominations, this time for her role in “The Post.” She has won three Oscars, three Emmys and six Golden Globes during her 40-year long career on stage, screen and television.

It is not clear why Streep would file a trademark application at this stage in her career and her attorney and publicist did not return a request for comment on Monday.

Many celebrities trademark their names or catch phrases to protect their intellectual property, stop other people using them without permission, or to earn cash from products bearing their name.

Taylor Swift has filed some 60 trademark applications in the last 10 years, according to Patent Office records, including for phrases from her songs including “This Sick Beat” and “Nice to meet you. Where you been?” for use on clothing, hair accessories and notebooks.

Streep last week joined the cast of HBO’s award-winning drama series “Big Little Lies” for its second season. She will play the mother of Alexander Skarsgard’s character.

George Sevier, intellectual property lawyer with Gowling WLG, said it was more common for celebrities to trademark their name earlier in their career when they began to see potential commercial uses. “I don’t know if it’s late in Meryl Streep's career. Maybe she’s got a long career ahead of her. But she's older than most people trademarking their names," he said.

He said he thought the aim of this move was to prevent commercial use of the name on movie-related websites. “It seems unlikely that someone is going to offer after-dinner speaking in the name of Meryl Streep unless it is Meryl Streep. It’s probably mostly to stop people using her name on the internet,” said Sevier.

However, it would not prevent people from referring to Meryl Streep on the internet, he said.

TRADEMARK FILINGS
 

• President Donald Trump had submitted an application in 2017 to trademark the slogan he plans to use for his 2020 re-election run: “Keep America Great”
•  Actor Sean Connery applied to trademark his name last year
•  David and Victoria Beckham have not only trademarked their names, in 2016 they did the same for their children, Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper
•  Jay Z and Beyoncé applied for trademarks for the names of their children, Blue Ivy Carter, and more recently Rumi Carter and Sir Carter, shortly after they were born
•  Paris Hilton trademarked not only her name but also her catchphrase "that's hot"
•  50 Cent trademarked his stage name and later sued a fast food chain for using it in an advertising campaign
•  Taylor Swift has filed around 60 trademark applications including for lyrics like "This Sick Beat" and "Nice to meet you. Where you been?"
•  Football manager Alex Ferguson tried and failed to trademark his name in 2005 after a judge ruled the requested mark was "devoid of any distinctive character".