Cardi B has been making lots of money moves lately. She’s been playing festivals, filming a movie Hustlers, and she just dropped a music video for her single “Press.” The rapper also tried to trademark her catchphrase “Okurr,” but her request was reportedly denied.
According to documents obtained by The Blast, Cardi B applied for ownership over her catchphrase, “Okurr,” back in March. Her request was for two spellings of the word, one spelled “Okurrr” and another “Okurr.” The “I Like It” rapper had planned to use the word on promotional materials such as cups, t-shirts, and posters.
Cardi’s plan foiled when the U.S. Patent and Trademark offices refused her request. According to the report, the phrase fell under the category of “widely-used commonplace expressions” and does not belong to a single person. The Trademark offices added that the phrase “is a slogan or term that does not function as a trademark or service mark to indicate the source of applicant’s goods and/or services.”
When news of the trademark request broke in March, many said that Cardi wasn’t the inventor of the phrase.
First of all, “Okurrr” was created by the LGBT community, before Cardi B’s music career took off. Yeah, her phrases are catchy, but she shouldn’t have to trademark.
And as for that word, don’t say it if you can’t roll your R’s pic.twitter.com/2YKbyC00Wi— James Cole (@JaCole001) March 21, 2019
https://twitter.com/svpermodel/status/1108959842448760832
The trademark refusal isn’t the end of the line for Cardi’s hopes of turning “Okurrr” into merch. The rapper is able to revise and resubmit the request to the U.S. Patent and Trademark offices in the future.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music.
