Mariah Carey is not the 'Queen of Christmas': trademark board
Mariah Carey's music may be considered the Christmas anthem but officially speaking, she's not the Queen of Christmas, much less the holiday's princess, ruled the trademark board in the United States.
Carey, whose 1994 hit All I Want for Christmas is You has become synonymous with the Yuletide season, applied to trademark the name "Queen of Christmas" last year.
But the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on Nov. 14 denied the 52-year-old singer's application.
Her petition to trademark "Princess Christmas" and "QOC" was also denied.
Carey would have had the privilege to exclusively use the titles on music and merchandise. She would have also been able to sue anybody using the names, and seek licensing fees and royalties.
Elizabeth Chan, a singer who's christened as "Queen of Christmas" by the New Yorker in 2018, has been critical of Carey's plan. Last August, Chan through her lawyer filed a formal declaration of opposition to Carey's trademark claim.
According to CBS News, Chan in a press release said she's "the world's only full-time Christmas music recording artist," and that she's called Queen of Christmas "for years," like other artists.
"Christmas is a season of giving, not the season of taking," Chan is quoted as saying, "and it is wrong for an individual to attempt to own and monopolize a nickname like Queen of Christmas for the purposes of abject materialism."
Chan, who has written over a thousand Christmas songs, noted that as an independent artist and small business owner, her life's work is "to bring people together for the holiday season."
"I wear that title (Queen of Christmas) as a badge of honor and with full knowledge that it will be—and should be—bestowed on others in the future," she said.