Meghan Markle's bid to save her podcast collapses despite desperate attempts to revive brand after Spotify axe
Meghan Markle filed an application to protect the name Archetypes in March 2022
PA
Meghan Markle has abandoned efforts to revive her Archetypes podcast after the £18million Spotify deal fell through earlier this year.
The Duchess of Sussex has officially withdrawn her bid to protect the name Archetypes, which she wanted to trademark.
The application – which was made by Meghan and Harry’s firm Archewell Audio – was withdrawn after a 17-month unsuccessful battle.
The couple’s podcast was part of a multimillion-pound Spotify deal. However, in June it was axed when the company decided not to renew the show for a second season.
WATCH NOW: Meghan and Harry's Spotify deal has been cancelled
The decision was said to have been “mutual” between the music streaming platform and Archewell Audio.
However, sources knowledgeable of the £18million deal said the contract was dropped after the royals failed to produce the required amount of content to entitle them to a full pay out.
Spotify boss Bill Simmons slammed the pair back in June when their podcast was scrapped, calling them “f***** grifters”.
Speaking on his own podcast, he said: “I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea.
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“It’s one of my best stories.
“The f***ing grifters - that’s the podcast we should've launched with them.”
The pair asked the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to grant exclusive name rights for Archetypes for “Downloadable audio recordings and podcasts, all in the fields of cultural treatment of women and stereotypes facing women”, as listed on the USPTO’s website.
Yet now the government agency’s website has put an “abandonment” record on the bid, following a 17-month battle to have the name protected.
Meghan and Harry left the Royal Family in 2020
PAIn December 2020, Meghan announced that she had signed a deal with Spotify - the same year her and her husband left the Royal Family.
However, the first episode of the podcasts came 20 months later, in August 2022.
In March 2022, the Duchess lodged an application to trademark the show’s name, however it was rejected in January of this year as another company had already been registered by another company.
Project Miracle IP Holdings registered the name in 2018, for “providing a website featuring blogs and non-downloadable publications in the nature of articles in the field(s) of nutrition, fitness, sexuality, psychological self-improvement, personality identification and matching, personal relationships and dating, spirituality, horoscopes and astrology, fashion, music, and reviews and recommendations for books.”