‘Very demure’ trademark issue is ‘handled,’ says TikTok influencer Jools Lebron : NPR

No more tears over a trademark snafu for Jools Lebron. In a video posted on her TikTok this week, the cashier-turned-social media star says simply, “We got it handled and I’m gonna leave it at that … Mama’s got a team now!” She hasn’t yet given specifics.

If you haven’t been following, here’s the gist. Lebron’s videos with the catchphrase “very demure, very mindful” ignited a major trend recently. Celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez and Khloe Kardashian, have made their own “demure” videos. Lebron was interviewed on CBS Mornings and by Jimmy Kimmel’s guest-host RuPaul.

While her TikTok audience skyrocketed into the millions, at least two individuals submitted applications to trademark her mindful motto with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). There’s an application for “Very demure.. Very mindful” submitted under the name Jefferson Bates of Washington State and another for “Very Demure Very Cutesy” by Kassandra Pop in California. Neither applicant responded to NPR’s requests for comment.

A trademark application is not a guarantee

Jason Lott, managing attorney for customer outreach with the USPTO, says it’s important to remember these are just requests.

“When someone submits an application, it isn’t that that automatically means that they own it or that they’re the ones who have rights in it,” Lott explains. “It’s just that they have applied to register and they’re essentially saying to the USPTO, ‘Hey, this is my trademark, and I want to have protection for it around the country.’”

Saying it’s “my trademark” doesn’t necessarily make it so, and that’s where the lawyers come in.

Lott says there’s a “huge backlog” of applications waiting for review by the USPTO’s attorneys. One reason: during the pandemic, people’s side hustles became their full-time hustles and there was a surge in applications, according to Lott.

Once that review begins, there’s a 30-day “opposition period.”

“During this opposition period,” says Lott, “someone can pop up and say, ‘No, no, no, I was the original user of this. I use it to indicate the source of my particular goods and services. Everybody thinks about me.’”

In the case of “very demure,” millions of people now think about Jools Lebron. When she learned the news, she posted a since-deleted video in which she tearfully blamed herself for dropping the ball. Her fans took to social media to express their outrage and support her.

“That is so messed up,” said Chante Bennett on TikTok, “It’s global. Everyone knows that this was popularized by her. This is just insane.”

And yet, it happens a lot. Remember “hawk tuah”? There are more than 30 applications to trademark the phrase in the USPTO database, including by the woman who first said it on social media.

‘Good faith’ application or ‘trademark troll’

Deborah Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says anyone “who has a good faith intent to use a mark can … apply to register a trademark.” She says doing so gives the first applicants an edge “because if two people use the same trademark in the same commercial space, the person to use the mark first wins.”

Jefferson Bates’ application date is August 20, more than two weeks after Lebron started using the phrase.

“If she can show that consumers view her as the source and that he came to the scene later, she could have superior trademark rights,” notes Gerhardt.

Bates seems to make a hobby of trying to register trademarks. There are multiple applications in his name in the USPTO database. “Trademark professionals have a word for this kind of person. We call them a ‘trademark troll,’ ” says Gerhardt.

Meantime, brands lined up to work with Jools Lebron. She selected her favorite movies and TV shows for a “Very demure, very mindful” category on Netflix and promoted Verizon’s phone trade-in policy. “A cracked screen” and “hot pink” phone are not her idea of “demure,” FYI.

Leslie Berland, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Verizon, said “the volume and the speed” at which people engaged with Lebron’s video was “unprecedented” for the company.

“One of the special things about Jools is that people are really rooting for her. You know, they want her to succeed,” marvels Berland. “They want to see her, as they say, ‘get her bag’ and get to the next level in her career.”