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Meghan Markle was forced to rebrand her American Riviera Orchard lifestyle firm after being told she couldn’t trademark the term – and Knewz.com has the inside story on how that is only the tip of the iceberg of her business launch.
Attorneys at the US Patent and Trademark Office told the duchess she couldn’t legally own rights to the term as it was a geographical area, can reveal – so she was forced into a hasty rebrand of her firm and it will now be known As Ever.
She has filed a raft of new documents to the USPTO to bag a trademark for her new two-world enterprise and its palm tree and birds logo.
It has been a sticky beginning for a venture has so far produced just a few pots of jam for her Montecito pals.
Markle has promised full-scale production is not long off but we can reveal none of the dozens of fruit farmers, jam producers and industrial food plants within 100 miles of Montecito, California, claim any knowledge of the duchess' product.
Molly Gean, whose farm produces Harry's Berries preserves, stated: "We have no knowledge whatsoever."
"There's no way that she's slaving for hours over a hot stove stirring steaming strawberries," said one industrial jam producer.
"She's most likely to use a co-packager who'll source her fruit, cook it, put it in jars, label it, add the nutritional and ingredient details, and send it out under her company's name."
The As Ever launch came just two weeks before the release of her Netflix show With Love, Meghan after it was delayed from its original January launch date due to the L.A. wildfires.
In what the Sussexes will hope will be a new money-spinner, products will include food such as 'fruit preserves', as Markle grandly called them, adding: "I think we're all clear at this point that jam is my jam."
American Riviera Orchard emerged last year when she began sending jams in limited edition jars to her most famous friends to share on social media. But ARO, as a brand, crashed.
As Ever was launched in a close-up Instagram video in the Sussexes' Montecito garden where Markle gave a nod to the trademark row that saw her American Riviera Orchard application refused by the U.S. trademark office.
"Last year, I had thought, American Riviera, that sounds like such a great name. It's my neighborhood – it's a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area," she said.
Patent applications suggest Markle's As Ever will also sell textiles such as tablecloths and napkins, skincare and haircare products and throws, blankets, bedspreads and household scents such as candles and diffusers.
There will also be gardening trowels, spades and pruning shears and inside the home there will be cutlery and kitchen knives.
Markle says As Ever's products will include jam but added that it will include cooking and crafting and gardening.
She also confirmed that Netflix is a business partner and her products will be sold in two malls in the U.S. at the streaming giant's new bricks and mortar store.