US Patent Office Rejects Meghan Markle's Patent Application For Her Lifestyle Brand Ahead Of First Product Launch

Now that she’s no longer a royal or an actress, Meghan Markle has focused all her efforts on her new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. However, she’s running into more roadblocks than anticipated. Still unable to find a CEO, now the former Suits actress is dealing with a rejected patent application for American Riviera Orchard. Keep reading for more information.

US Patent Office Rejects 'American Riviera Orchard' Patent

Markle's lifestyle brand is set to sell home goods like small-batch jams and jellies, kitchen linens, and cooking utensils, and is supposedly launching products quite soon. However, this past week she's run into yet another issue. Her patent application has been denied by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), for numerous reasons.

First of all, businesses are not allowed to trademark geographic locations, and "the American Riviera" is a nickname for Santa Barbara, California, where she and her husband, Prince Harry, live with their two children . "Commonly used nicknames for geographic locations are generally treated as equivalent to the proper geographic name of the place identified," the USPTO's rejection letter says.

Additionally, there's apparently a number of "irregularities" that need to be "corrected," including instances where the mother-of-two didn't sign her name on the proper pages. She also failed to pay the $11,382 international registration fee. If only she had a CEO to take care of the paperwork for her...

Not The First Setback For American Riviera Orchard

Even before her patent application was rejected, Markle was having trouble with her brand, unable not only to find a CEO, but also facing issues with staff members quitting in numbers . According to DailyMail, Meghan reportedly "struggled" to find someone else to run her company, though sources close to the Duchess say she's perfectly happy running the business herself.

A separate source told Closer Magazine that Markle and Prince Harry were "the toughest of taskmasters," resulting in many staff members quitting. "The numbers don't lie and to have almost 20 members of staff quitting on them tells its own story," the source continued. "It's unprecedented, even for a startup. They're very demanding and difficult to work for and that puts a lot of people's backs up."