The trademark battle over ‘Demure’ shows a huge shift in meme power

How to Get a Registration for a Product (or Service)? A Case Study on TikTok, Apple Records, IC 035 and Spirit Airlines

From the second the message appeared on X, it had a familiar ring. Jools Lebron, the TikTok creator who went viral just a few weeks ago for a post discussing “very demure, very mindful” work looks, was upset that, seemingly, someone had attempted to trademark her viral phrase.

You aren’t guaranteed to get a registration if you apply. Maybe your application doesn’t fit with the database at all. Maybe the trademark you’ve picked is a tad bit too generic. Depending on what kind of paperwork you’re filing, it’s possible you didn’t include enough documentation of how the trademark is being used in the real world. And sometimes, the examining attorney who was assigned to your application is feeling cranky that day and decides to pick on you. (The inverse can be true as well — the examiner might be a little too ready to go home, and rubber-stamps something that probably shouldn’t have been approved.)

And crucially, during the application process, other people can file to oppose the registration. (In 2014, Disney tried — unsuccessfully — to block the registration of Deadmau5’s logo.)

You can still register a mark for a limited number of goods and services even if you are the biggest company on the planet. And the more goods and services you claim, the more pushback you’ll get from the Trademark Office. Having a trademark doesn’t mean you “own” a word or phrase in the English language, and having that trademark in one industry doesn’t let you flex on all the others. Apple obviously owns the trademark for all kinds of things, ranging from phones to personal computers to television streaming services, but it can’t stop anyone from selling a fruit while calling it an apple. Thanks to the Beatles’ Apple Records, the company was stuck in years of legal wrangling over its music-related services. Two entirely different companies manufacture Dove chocolate (“For: IC 030 Cocoa”) and Dove deodorant (“For: IC 003 Body wash and body bars soap. Spirit Halloween (“For: IC 035 retail store services featuring Halloween merchandise”) and Spirit Airlines (“For: IC 039 Scheduled and chartered air transportation”) have no relation to each other.

I found the words “Advertising, Marketing and promotional services related to all industries for the purpose of facilitating networking and socializing opportunity for business purposes” so offensive that I did a spit-take. It’s not just that “advertising, marketing, and promotional services” is a hilarious category to use someone else’s TikTok meme for — the “all industries” tips it over into genuinely sublime comedy.

The person named Jefferson A. Bates filed the application about a week ago. It is a trademark. The originator of the “very demure” meme is a TikTok influencer named Jools Lebron, who was on Jimmy Kimmel just last week. She’s made deals with Verizon and Netflix all on the back of “demure.” The email address associated with Jefferson A.Bates’ publisher is tied to a post about intellectual property rights of Squid Game on the publisher’s Facebook page.

The first thing I want to say is that trademark is not the same as copyright, regardless of what’s written in The Sun article. A trademark is not the same as a trademark registration. An application to register a trademark is neither the third and most important thing.

The mailing address in the Trademark Office’s database seems to be for a brick-and-beige home that I will otherwise refrain from describing. Someone has already created a Google Maps listing for “Very Demure Very Mindful” at this address, with the official website listed as a link to the TSDR page for the pending “Very Demure.. An application. Four people have reviewed the listing and given it a 1.0 out of five stars. “Jefferson Bates, you should be ashamed of yourself!!” one reviewer writes. “Not very demure,” says another.

Flipping through the dyadic waters: Peaches Monroee’s Snapchat story about pop-ups and a crowdfunding campaign by Kayla Lewis

In a since-deleted video, Lebron lamented through tears that her future ability to sell demure-branded merchandise seemed in jeopardy. I felt like I dropped the ball because I didn’t have enough money for my family, and I didn’t have enough resources for my transition.

Lebron’s situation is echoed in the story of fellow Chicagoan Peaches Monroee. In the summer of 2014, the then teenager posted a video on TikTok saying her eyebrows were on fleek. Her slogan caught on, from the lyrics to Kim Kardashian’s posts. Future21 made crop tops, which are popular among brands like taco Bell. Monroee, also known as Kayla Lewis, didn’t reap any rewards. Three years after the trend went crazy, she launched a campaign on GoFundMe and raised more than $17,000.