- Duke and Duchess of Sussex take action against Filipino small business owner
- Move follows trademark related to the royal couple’s Archewell brand launch
- Legal expert tells WTR that third-party Archewell trademarks were “inevitable”
An entity representing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is pursuing legal action against a small business owner in the Philippines, WTR can reveal. The trademark dispute related to the Archewell brand is set to be a fiery one, with the opponent publicly telling the royal couple that ‘the Philippines is not a British colony so English laws don’t work here’.
Last year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sought legal protection for their ‘Sussex Royal’ brand, but faced a number of hurdles. What began as a young couple launching a charitable foundation turned into a long-running saga playing out under the public eye, involving unauthorised trademark applications, threatened oppositions and an intervention from the Queen. Eventually, the couple confirmed that their non-profit organisation would not use the ‘Sussex Royal’ name and they withdrew their trademark applications. Shortly thereafter, they announced a new brand name: Archewell.
What followed was a spate of trademark filings across the world by the couple’s legal entity Cobblestone Lane LLC in Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, as well as an international submission (designating China, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Russia). Due…
