What’s In A Baby Name

Beyoncé and Jay-Z filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 26th to trademark the Blue Ivy name. This follows fashion designer Joseph Mbeh, who submitted an application to trademark ‘Blue Ivy Carter NYC’ just four days after the baby was born.

THIS IS GOING TO START A TREND…MAYBE I SHOULD TRADEMARK MY CHILDREN’S NAMES 😀

That request, along with another filed on January 20th, were rejected by the trademark office as they said the name belonged to a “very famous infant ” and customers would be tricked into believing that any product bearing the name would be associated with Jay-Z and Beyonce.

One Wisconsin boutique is in luck, though. The owners of a clothing store named Blue Ivy filed for a trademark back on Jan. 19, 2011, and the request was approved in August — well before Beyonce ever announced she was pregnant. (I’d sell the name for that MONEY!)

There have been some concerns raised by how quickly federal officers acted on the Carter’s trademark filing. Usually it takes several months for those applications to see the light of day, but Blue Ivy’s has seemingly been fast-tracked. (Money does talk)