Meghan Markle Tries to Trademark Word ‘Archetypes’ for Spotify Podcast

TOPSHOT - Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wa
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The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has reportedly filed an application to trademark the centuries-old word “archetypes” as it will be the name for her upcoming podcast on Spotify.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, Meghan Markle has made an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in March for the usage of the word “archetypes”, which the paper noted derives from Ancient Greek for “original forms” and entered the English language around the 1540’s.

The word according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica means: “a primordial image, character, or pattern of circumstances that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently enough to be considered a universal concept or situation.”

The word archetypes was popularised by Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung, who pioneered many theories of modern psychology, including the idea of a “collective unconscious”.

Jung’s work on archetypes has found renewed popularity over the past several years due to the influence it has had on Canadian professor and author Jordan Peterson.

The British tabloid reported that Meghan’s trademark application covers a wide range of goods and services, including anything involved “in the fields of cultural treatment of women and stereotypes facing women”.

The application also seeks to trademark the term for global computer networks, the internet, wireless devices, mobile apps, streaming media, webcasts, podcasts, tv programmes on satellite and cable, DVDs, and CDs.

It was filed by Archwell Audio, one of the companies established by Harry and Meghan following their decision to shun the royal family in favour of a Hollywood lifestyle.

As the trademark application was not filed by Spotify, it will mean that the woke royals will own the rights to the trademark rather than the Swedish streaming giant, which reportedly paid the couple £18million in 2020 to produce a podcast.

It is unclear if the attempt to take ownership of the word will prove fruitful, however, as previous attempts to trademark common words have failed in the past, such as when pop singer Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Beckham attempted to trademark the word “posh” to prevent a football team from using their team’s nickname. There have even been attempts to copyright colours.

The British tabloid also noted that there are other businesses in America using the word, which may seek to block the woke Duchess from claiming it as her own.

Meghan’s podcast — which will focus on examining labels and stereotypes that supposedly “hold women back” — is set to finally debut sometime this summer, after two years of preparation.

In a promotional trailer for the podcast, Markle says: “This is how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us. But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives?

“This is Archetypes – the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert the labels that try to hold women back.

“I’ll have conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape our narratives. And I’ll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.”

The podcast will see Harry and Meghan become bedfellows with podcasting titan Joe Rogan, whom the woke couple have previously chastised for expressing counter narrative opinions on the Chinese coronavirus and vaccines.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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