Mariah Carey Denied “Queen Of Christmas” Trademark:
In recent years, now that her days of pop-chart domination are otherwise behind her, Mariah Carey has leaned into the ongoing popularity of her holiday standard “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
^ A garbage song.
Thanks to the advent of streaming, the song — originally released in 1994 — has become a constant in the top 10 throughout the yuletide season, and starting in 2019 it has hit #1 on the Hot 100 every December.
Programmers program it to pay, lest one thinks actual DJs want to hear this song.
Renewed attention for the song has resulted in at least one lawsuit, and some of Carey’s fellow musical artists have bristled at her attempt to trademark the phrase “Queen of Christmas.”
It’s ridiculous that such “properties”, a.k.a. former artists who look to milk whatever they can of their relevance, try to trademark such broad terms.
In August, Elizabeth Chan — who purports to be the only full-time Christmas songwriter, who was dubbed a “queen of Christmas” in a 2018 New Yorker profile, and who released an album called Queen Of Christmas last year — filed court documents seeking to block Carey from trademarking the phrase.
I both support and don’t support Mx. Chan.
Three months later, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has denied Carey’s application, noting that her legal team did not respond to Chan’s opposition. The patent office also denied Carey’s request to trademark the terms “Princess Christmas” and “QOC.”
Good, because it’s bs that ANYONE gets that trademark. The amount of existing art in this arena must be massive.
“I’m so happy,” Chan told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s my life’s work.” Chan’s lawyer Louis Tompros added, “This is the right result. If Mariah’s team had any answer to the opposition that we made, they would have made it, but the fact of the matter is, she’s not entitled to a trademark on Queen of Christmas.”
I don’t know about you, but I’d just as soon have no one anointed the “queen of Christmas” since that’s not a thing.
More important, I am not a fan of Christmas music in general.
Most important, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is a terrible song regardless of the season.