Meghan Markle’s American Riviera Orchard brand will get a thumbs down

Meghan Markle has been thrown for a loop – again – in her bid to get her American Riviera Orchard home goods brand off the ground, this time it’s the loop in her logo, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Just days ago, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied an application regarding the name of her brand, saying businesses are not allowed to trademark geographic locations. 

This would include the ‘American Riviera’ nickname of the coastline near the Sussexes’ mansion in Montecito, California.

Now the same office is questioning the way the letter ‘O’ for Orchard is depicted on the intricate and swirling logo for the company, planned to help boost the fortunes of Meghan and Harry following the end of their $20million Spotify deal.

In a ‘non-final action’ document, USPTO writes that the application has been reviewed by an examining attorney and: ‘Applicant must submit an amended description of the mark that agrees with the mark on the drawing.

‘The current description is inconsistent with the mark on the drawing and is thus inaccurate. Descriptions must be accurate and identify only those literal and design elements appearing in the mark.

‘In particular, the current mark description indicates that the letter ‘O’ appears in the mark. However, the letter is now clearly visible or highly stylized that it is unrecognizable as a letter. Furthermore, the description is incomplete because it does not describe all the elements in the mark.’

But the office gives Meghan a hand if she’s stuck on what it suggests is a more accurate description of the current image.

It writes: ‘The following description is suggested, if accurate: The mark consists of a double lined octagon enclosing the stylized and overlapping letters ‘AR’ and incorporating decorative and looping lines. The latter ‘A’ contains a stylized flower at the top of the letter.’

The same document took issue with Meghan’s descriptions of some of the good she plans to market, saying they are ‘too broad’. These included ‘bath soap, cocktail napkins, pans, cooking utensils, namely forks, strainers, spoons, spreaders, spatulas, whisks, tongs’.

Descriptions of ‘yoga blankets, meditation blankets’ also came in for scrutiny, with a direction that the proper classification with the office should be ‘gift wrap of fabric or textile’.

Meghan’s application includes stationery sets, with letter openers, envelopes, printed note cards, printed holiday cards, greeting cards, invitations, recipe cards and embossed stationary. The latest document suggested additional wording to clarify the classification.

The Duchess of Sussex launched publicity for American Riviera Orchard in March, by sending out 50 jars of ‘homemade’ strawberry jam to celebs. Each had a number from the batch.

Her latest blow for the company comes after previous bungles and failures to secure rights over her podcast brand, Archewell, last year.

Additionally, the USPTO refusal regarding the name, on August 31, also revealed a slew of problems with the filing, including Meghan’s agents’ apparent failure to sign the correct documents.

The knockback even included a screenshot of another Santa Barbara business’s product already using the term ‘American Riviera’. It showed that the site sbcoastalcandles.com sells an ‘American Riviera’ candle for $34.95.

‘Registration is refused because the applied-for mark is primarily geographically descriptive,’ the USTPO said in its filing.

‘Commonly used nicknames for geographic locations are generally treated as equivalent to the proper geographic name of the place identified.

‘American Riviera is a common nickname for Santa Barbara, California.’

The decision could throw a wrench in the works for the launch of Markle’s embattled brand, which was reportedly scheduled to go live by the end of the year.

According to her trademark filings, Meghan, 43, plans to sell tableware, drinkware, decanters, kitchen linens and pantry goods including jellies, jams, marmalade and spreads.

Her trademark application already suffered an embarrassing setback when the USPTO said she failed to pay $11,382 in international registration fees and other ‘irregularities’ that needed to be ‘corrected’.

DailyMail.com exclusively revealed those initial trademark troubles last month.

The USPTO’s decision is not final, and Markle’s lawyers can still appeal and revise their application to try to get at least some of her products approved.

A source close to the Sussexes told DailyMail.com that some back and forth with USPTO is ‘routine and expected when filing for trademarks’ and that they believed Meghan would be filing 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 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 – though sources close to the Duchess have insisted she is happy running the business herself.

And she is also having to deal with a constant revolving door with her staff.

The reported insider told Closer Magazine that Prince Harry and his wife were ‘the toughest of taskmasters’ with high staff turnover.

‘The numbers don’t lie and to have almost 20 members of staff quitting on them tells its own story,’ the source told Closer. ‘It’s unprecedented, even for a startup.

‘The brutal reality is Harry and Meghan are the toughest of taskmasters, they’re very demanding and difficult to work for and that puts a lot of people’s backs up.’ 

However, a source close the to Sussexes has dismissed that claim.

High-profile figures quitting the Sussexes’ employ have included Meghan’s personal assistant Melissa Toubati in 2018 shortly after their wedding; Meghan’s female bodyguard in January 2019; senior communications secretary Jason Knauf in March 2019; and Queen Elizabeth’s former aide and Meghan’s private secretary Samantha Cohen in October 2019.

Knauf was later revealed to be the source of the bullying complaint against Markle, which sparked a palace investigation.

Details of the probe’s conclusion were not revealed, and the Sussexes strongly denied all claims of bullying.

The couple’s PR chief Sarah Latham quit when Harry and Meghan decided to leave the UK in 2020. The couple’s 14 other palace staff were also axed at the time.

And American PR expert Christine Weil Schirmer joined the Sussexes in 2020 as head of communications but left quietly late last year.

Last month their chief of staff, PR guru Josh Kettler, quit after just three months on the job, becoming the latest staff member to leave the Sussexes. The decision was reportedly a ‘mutual’ agreement at the end of Kettler’s trial period.