[imagesource:wonderai]

Trademark experts have been left baffled and amused after it emerged that the king of Morocco submitted more trademark applications than any other entity in South Africa in 2022.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco made 475 trademark applications to the Companies And Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) last year – more than double the 187 applications made by technology giant Amazon in 2022.

Besides the number of applications, and the circumstances around them, those in the know say that the applications were ‘some of the most unusual they had seen’.

According to the World Trademark Review, which analyses trademark filings, the king has submitted the same number of trademarks in Tanzania as well. The report also reveals trademark applications made by the monarch in Australia, the UK, Indonesia, Malaysia, Canada, Botswana and India.

According to News24, who saw the applications, ‘they are all different iterations of his name or the names of his family, including the deceased former king, Hassan II, and the heir to the throne, Prince Moulay Hassan’.

Experts like Herman Blignaut, a partner at a law firm that specialises in trademarks and other intellectual property categories, these applications are some of the most unusual he has seen in his 21 years on the job. “It is highly unusual that an applicant would file this extensively for protection in relation to all categories for all goods and services.”

Trademarks are ‘a type of intellectual property that provides an entity with legal protection in order to keep their branding unique’, and include 34 classes that relate to goods and 11 that relate to services. For instance, vehicles require a class 12 trademark, musical instruments a class 15, and any services in the telecommunications industry a class 38.

Weirdly enough, the king applied for trademarks across all these classes, and according to Blignaut, “This essentially means the king applied to use the trademarks for every single conceivable goods and service in South Africa”.

“No businesses really offer all goods and all services under the sun, so you would normally register for the goods and services of interest to you. That’s another reason that this is unusual because the king has now claimed an intention to use his names as trademarks for all conceivable goods and services. Practically speaking, that’s impossible.”

One explanation for this strange move may be that he is registering for trademarks to prevent other entities from using them; Blignaut however believes this won’t work if he is challenged in court.

Some of the applications were accepted in early February 2023, less than a year later, and were legally registered in August of this year. According to the experts, this was very fast by industry standards.

“I wouldn’t say that it is impossibly fast or that one would necessarily conclude that strings were being pulled in the background. But it is quite fast. I mean, that is as fast, I think, as a trademark can proceed to registration these days without cutting corners somewhere,” he said.

Monarchs are a weird bunch at the best of times, but nobody seems to know what the King of Morocco is up to, and that makes it sound very suspicious.

[source:news24]