MEGGING A CHANGE
Meghan Markle officially ditches her Archetypes podcast after £18million Spotify deal fell through
MEGHAN Markle has officially ditched her Archetypes podcast after her £18million Spotify deal fell through.
The Duchess of Sussex has abandoned an attempt to secure the name of the ill-fated Archetypes streaming series backed by husband Prince Harry.
4
Meghan had wanted to trademark the word Archetypes but the couple - who quit frontline royal family duties in 2020 - have now withdrawn the bid by their firm Archewell Audio.
They previously asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to grant exclusive name rights but have now given up.
A newly-revealed notice on the USPTO website revealed how they have formally withdrawn their claim.
An "abandonment" record was given for Archewell Audio's bid to trademark "Archetypes" as a name for "Downloadable audio recordings and podcasts, all in the fields of cultural treatment of women and stereotypes facing women".
Read More On Harry And Meghan
The move comes after Meghan's Spotify deal was scrapped in June with the announcement her podcast wouldn't get a second series.
It was said the shows did not meet "productivity requirements".
Meghan's programme, aimed at discussing "labels that try to hold women back", was dropped after producing 13 episodes in 31 months.
Spotify executive Bill Simmons was reported to have labelled the pair "f***ing grifters" while also ridiculing Harry's own podcast ideas.
Most read in Fabulous
The company's head of global sports content said in his own show, The Bill Simmons Podcast, he should "get drunk one night" and reveal all about his meeting with the duke.
Simmons said of Harry and Meghan in June: "The f***ing grifters - that’s the podcast we should've launched with them.
"I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea.
"It’s one of my best stories."
Meghan revealed in December 2020 she signed the Spotify deal after the pair's departure from what's been dubbed the Firm.
But it was another 20 months before her Archetypes series was launched, in August 2022.
Controversy was sparked by the podcast when Meghan claimed her son Archie had to be saved as a baby from a fire when they were fulfilling a royal tour of Africa.
She also appeared to swipe at Palace insiders' suggestion she was "Duchess Difficult", with Meghan telling listeners how setting boundaries doesn't make her "difficult".
The duchess also described quitting an £800-per-episode job because she felt objectified as a briefcase model on TV game show Deal Or No Deal.
Celebrity guests on her Archetypes podcast included tennis legend Serena Williams, pop star Mariah Carey, socialite Paris Hilton and Sex And The City author .
Reports have suggested the royal couple's company Archewell "revived" its bid to trademark the Archetypes title even after the Spotify deal was cancelled.
Yet an unsuccessful 17-month struggle to get the name protected appears now to be over.
The application was first lodged with the patent office in March last year but was rejected 10 months later after the USPTO raised the "likelihood of confusion" with an existing trademark.
The word Archetypes had been registered in May 2018 by US-based firm Miracle IP Holdings.
They had opted for it for "a website featuring blogs and non-downloadable publications in the nature of articles in the field(s) of nutrition, fitness, sexuality, psychological self-improvement, personality identification and matching, personal relationships and dating, spirituality, horoscopes and astrology, fashion, music, and reviews and recommendations for books."
READ MORE SUN STORIES
The Sussexes' lawyers applied for an "extension" to give a response, granting them until July 18 - then another "petition to revive" was lodged on July 24, the month after the Spotify deal's end.
But the royal couple's representatives have now filed an "express abandonment" of their application.
4
4
4
Topics