Jay-Z and Beyonce Lose Blue Ivy Trademark Fight

When Jay-Z and Beyonce named their new daughter Blue Ivy back in January, most people said, “What the heck?’ Boston-based entrepreneur Veronica Alexandra, however, was saying something else.

The 32-year-old’s response was more like “Uh-oh.” After all, her wedding and event planning business, which has offices in Florida and Southern California, happened to have the very same name.

So when the music superstars went to trademark the name for their daughter, Alexandra did the same. And now, the Boston Herald reports, she’s won trademark protection for Blue Ivy. 

“I definitely needed to protect what it is I’ve been living on,” Alexandra told the Herald. “Now it’s time to create the partnerships and business avenues I’m planning on doing, period.”

She is allowed to use the name for advertising, business management and administration, and planning entertainment purposes. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, meanwhile, has sent a suspended letter to the music-world power couple. Sorry, Jay-Z and Beyonce. You’ll have to find a way to survive — or appeal, as Spin's headline on the matter hints.

While the whole thing may have been a bureaucratic hassle for Alexandra, she isn’t sorry that it happened — indeed, the homepage of her business website posts a congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Carter on their good taste in names, while a blog post states, "Did we mention that Blue Ivy has Beyonce and Jay-Z loving the name so much, that they named their daughter the same name as our company!? :) It's fairly safe to think this spirit of synchronicity speaks volumes about our level of trend setting creativity."

“I can’t be frustrated with something I think is going to bring me to produce and define my brand even more, which is financially exciting in itself and intellectually exciting as well,” she told the Herald. “It’s like they caused me to create more opportunity for myself.”

Too bad she didn’t have a business called Brooklyn Nets already, too. Then she could have gone after Jay-Z, a partial owner of the team, for that one, too.