Legally, Mariah Carey can’t call herself Queen of Christmas
Mariah Carey's attempt to file a trademark on the title "Queen of Christmas" has failed
Aux News Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey’s bid to be crowned the One True Queen of Christmas has been denied. In the realm of pop culture, the singer certainly has a claim on the title, owing to her tremendously successful and timeless holiday classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” As such, she was hoping to extend her reign into the realm of trademarks so that she could brand skin care products, dog leashes, coconut milk, and more. (No, really.) But another Christmas Queen stood in her way.
“The kind of music and the Christmas culture that allowed [Carey] and me to be a ‘Queen of Christmas’ is what I wanted to offer to generations after we’re long gone,” Elizabeth Chan, the noted Christmas caroler who filed a series of oppositions to Carey’s trademark bid, told The Washington Post. “Whether it’s grandmothers baking cookies or Etsy sellers or Christmas movies, it takes a lot of people to help usher in the season, and for one person to outrightly own that is wrong.”
Ah, a Christmas Queen for the people! Rather than battling it out Game Of Thrones style, Chan wants to bestow a piece of the crown to everyone, à la Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls (who, by the way, is also a Christmas Queen). “This isn’t about who’s the queen of Christmas,” she explained to the outlet. “This is about [Carey’s] attempt to basically monopolize ‘Queen of Christmas’ in a very big overreaching way. Like, how many ‘Queens of Christmas’ could we have missed? And how many other new Christmas songs would we have missed?”
Chan’s lawyer Louis W. Tompros called the bid “a case of trademark bullying,” adding that “Tomorrow you can go out and proudly wear your ‘Queen of Christmas’ sweatshirt, and the ‘Queen of Christmas’ on radio stations can be a new person every year. Man or woman, whatever they want, anyone is the ‘Queen of Christmas.’” Huzzah!
One person who is definitely pleased with Chan’s efforts is Darlene Love, who previously registered her complaints after pointing out that David Letterman appointed her the title a year before “All I Want For Christmas” was even released. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” songstress wrote, “Congrats to all the other Queen of Christmases around the world, living and whom have passed!” Long live the Queen(s).
34 Comments
Perhaps this is a nitpick, but it sounds to me like she can call herself the Queen of Christmas. She just can’t stop other people from calling themselves Christmas queens also.
Yep, you knew the writer was screwing it up before you even got past the headline.
I’m the Christmas Queen!
See you in COURT!!!
Prepare to be visited by the ghost of Freddie Mercury…
Wow, you managed to pick up the very point of the article. Cheers!
Despite its ubiquity, I’ve never had anything against Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. Until this money-grab of a stunt, which reeks of the worst kind of Christmas commercialization.Christmas has indeed become a big commercial racket, though I think the syndicate running it is too far-flung to be called “eastern”.
Yeah, it’s a good song regardless of how often it gets played. If we were hearing “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” or “Christmas Shoes” with as much frequency, then there’d be cause for alarm.
Back in the 80s, that grandma got ran over many times a day
Maybe I’m out of it, but I’ve never heard anyone use the phrase “Queen of Christmas” in my life. Is this something recent?
who fucking knows
The real Queen of Christmas is either Mary mother of Jesus or Mrs claus. It’s up for debate
I think they should settle it in The Octagon.
It’s not the elves we conscripted along the way??
Mariah Carey: The reason for the season!
Well of course not; the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 says “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States.”She could be the President of Christmas. Or maybe Chancellor of the Exchequer of Christmas, if she really wants a British title that isn’t a noble one.
That’s “granted by the United States”. So, while the United States can’t grant the Queen title, aren’t there other ways to go about it?
And hey, doesn’t Burger King have a U.S. legal trademark? Does the Burger part nullify the King royalty?
I’m just asking questions here!
(and I’m hungry now!)
President of the Confederate States of Christmas.
Undersecretary of Sugarplums.
Anticipating an upcoming announcement that Mariah now styles herself as “The Christmas Empress.” Calling it now.
Mariah is the Court Jester of New Year’s Eve.
Maybe she would have better luck choosing something a little further down the line of nobility. Christmas Countess, perhaps, or even Commissioner of Christmas. Though I think that’s only filled by appointment.
Baroness of Christmass
Meh never really liked her Christmas song. But then again I am one of those types who firmly believes any Christmas song recorded after about 1970 is garbage. Just give me the old Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra stuff.
So…cocaine?
Only if you do it off a strippers tits.
Counterpoint: every song from 1978’s “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street”
Fair enough. I’m just one of those people that only likes the Christmas music from when I was young growing up. The old stuff just hits different.
I get that; the sound of those early tracks is so engrained in my brain that it automatically thinks Christmas music whenever I hear some 40s/50s choral group.
I’m mostly the same; the old crooner versions of, like, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (Bing Crosby and the like) are what I feel like Christmas music is. There’s a couple caveats:I’m an atheist and we actually celebrate the Solstice, an astronomically-supported holiday, not this made up “a few days after the Solstice” bullshitdespite my taste in Christmas music being almost entirely dominated by Crosby-style classics, my absolute favorite Christmas song is actually “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses
“I’m an atheist and we actually celebrate the Solstice, an astronomically-supported holiday, not this made up “a few days after the Solstice” bullshit”It’s funny I made that same point in another article here about how Christmas was just invented to get pagans who celebrated the winter solstice to join the Christian church, same with Easter as well lol.
“I will defend the sanctity of this imaginary title that means nothing!”
That’s great news. Mariah Carey can go fuck herself.
Mariah is harmless. Anybody got a problem with her festiveness is just a Scrooge. Mariah really annoys those that love to be annoyed. Her Christmas album is beyond classic. Year after year, it has a quality cannot be ignored!!