Mariah Carey, referred to often as “The Queen of Christmas,” thanks mostly to her annual hit Christmas song All I Want For Christmas Is You, has been denied a trademark for the jolly nickname.
When it was revealed months ago that Carey filed for the trademark, some controversy arose due to the fact that she herself had previously said she is not the Queen of Christmas. Other musical artists whose quantity of Christmas songs is greater than Carey’s publicly objected to her filing and expressed surprise, considering her previous noted comments.
Darlene Love is one of those artists. She made annual appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman just to perform Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), and appeared in a memorable segment of the Academy Award-winning 2013 documentary feature 20 Feet from Stardom. She stated over the summer, upon hearing the news, “David Letterman officially declared me the Queen of Christmas 29 years ago… and at 81 years of age, I’m not changing anything.”
Love added that if Mariah has any problem with that, then she can call David Letterman, or her lawyer.
Another such artist is Elizabeth Chan, whose life’s work has been writing, recording, and performing Christmas songs. As a result, she’s been known for years as the Queen of Christmas and, upon learning that Mariah Carey filed for the title, officially filed a formal declaration of opposition against the move, citing that no individual should be allowed to exclusively hold that title.
Today, the U.S Trademark Trial and Appeal Board agreed with Chan, blocking Carey’s attempt to the rights of the title as well as her attempt to trademark other similar titles, including “Christmas Princess,” which would be kinda weird if she was awarded such a title because, well, no one calls ever calls her that. What was she thinking with that one?
Elizabeth Chan expressed to Variety months ago:
“Christmas is a season of giving, not the season of taking. I feel very strongly that no one person should hold onto anything around Christmas or monopolize it in the way that Mariah seeks to in perpetuity, Christmas is for everyone. It’s meant to be shared, not owned.”
It’s interesting to note that the Christmas spirit is sharing and, in this case, it appears that Mariah didn’t lose as much as the Christmas spirit won.