Meghan Markle Is in a ‘Major Panic’ Now Because of What She Can’t Sell Through Her Lifestyle Brand
After announcing in March 2024 that the name for her upcoming lifestyle collection would be “American Riviera Orchard,” Meghan Markle had to change the name when the application for “ARO” was reportedly rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Nearly a year later, in February 2025, the duchess took to Instagram to reveal that the new name of her lifestyle brand and product line would now be called “As Ever.” However, the problem with that name is that it’s already being used.
Because a vintage clothing shop in New York has been operating under that name for more than a decade, Meghan faced some backlash online about “ripping off” the name of a small business. Not only that, there’s also a photography company in Arizona called “As Ever” and an “ASEVER” clothing brand based in China, which supplies to fast-fashion stores like H&M.
Now, the former Suits star is dealing with another headache ahead of her product launch over something that she can’t do, and a couple of royal experts say that has Prince Harry’s wife in “panic mode” now.
Why commentators say Meghan is in ‘panic mode’
When Meghan’s brand was first announced it was supposed to sell just about every product under the sun such as decanters, napkin rings, cutlery, table linens, placemats and napkins, cookbooks, jams, maramalades, fruit preserves, spreads, cover stationery, party decorations, makeup, skincare, haircare, fragrance, soaps, and body lotion. She also applied for trademarks of yoga mats and cushions as well, and pet food.
Per documents obtained by the Daily Mail, Meghan’s lawyers applied for permission at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to sell aprons under the “As Ever” name back in 2022. But that was rejected in 2023 because the duchess cannot sell any type of clothing since her “As Ever” brand name is too close to the Chinese company “ASEVER.”
According to the rejection document, “The marks are identical in sound and virtually identical in appearance and are thus confusingly similar for the purposes of determining likelihood of confusion.”
Royal expert and To Di For Daily podcast host Kinsey Schofield discussed Meghan’s issues with Talk TV host Kevin O’Sullivan who commented: “I think she’s gone back to As Ever in a major panic and now will be stopped from selling clothes. So this will be a serious restriction of business plans.”
Schofield added: “This is just another example of how this was a crisis pivot. The fact that we find out just two weeks before the show, which was postponed a month and a half, that there’s this rebranding that’s gone on.
“You and I debated whether or not this was going to be a dump by Netflix, the way they dumped (Prince Harry’s series) all in one, all in one sitting — that ‘we recognize this is gutter TV, have it all’ and then they kind of ran away from it. That’s why I suspect that they will space out Meghan’s episodes to try to salvage anything when it comes to getting some sort of retail arm up and running prior to the show wrapping finally.”
O’Sullivan agreed, saying: “There’s no other conclusion to all from the events, the hasty, hurried events of the last week, Meghan and her business partners at Netflix have gone into panic mode.”
Other owner of ‘As Ever’ says if any conflict affects his business he will take action
As for Mark Kolski who owns the other “As Ever” store in the Big Apple, he may not be actively trying to sue the duchess or Netflix now, but he has consulated a lawyer.
He told The New York Times that he had been reading up on trademark law and spoke to a lawyer saying: “I started getting messages from friends and family and people that know my brand. And they were saying, ‘Have you seen this?’ There was just a lot of confusion, and I didn’t really know what to do. My brother’s an attorney, and so I called him. He’s not an intellectual property lawyer, but he did say, you know, you have some rights based on your established business.
“I’m not trying to mount some legal offensive here. Right now, I’m just going back to work, and I’m trying to keep the awareness of my brand. If any conflict eventually arises that affects my business, I’ll evaluate that then.”
Regarding Meghan specifically, Kolski added: “What it feels like is out there people are making comments, and the media they want to create a rift between us, but there isn’t. I haven’t talked to them. They haven’t talked to me. There’s no battle going on.”
