Megan Thee Stallion says she's officially secured the trademark to Hot Girl Summer, striking fear into the heart of fast fashion retailers everywhere. In an interview with Virginia's 103 Jamz, she said that the trademark is locked down.
"It's trademarked. We did it," she said, just days after discussing her reasoning for the trademark in an interview with Allure.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database does say Theory Entertainment LLC (300 Entertainment, Megan's label) has a live trademark for Hot Girl Summer. Other trademarks include Hot Nerd Shit and Hot Girl Semester.
Megan said that she created the phrase but didn't think to claim ownership of it, as she didn't realize the phrase was going to blow up well outside of her fan base. The call for self-empowerment quickly took off beyond hip-hop fans and was co-opted by brands. When she noticed massive corporations using her creation in their marketing, she knew she had to do something.
"I really didn’t even know that it was gonna catch on how it did. It was just me talking shit, telling everybody I was gonna be me for the summer, and they should be them too, like as free as they can be," she said. "When I saw Wendy’s and Forever 21 saying, ‘Hey, are you having a Hot Girl Summer?’ I was like, ‘Hell no, Forever 21, you’re going to have to pay me.’ But I just wanted to get it trademarked because it’s me. It’s my thing."
It seems like the government agrees: Hot Girl Summer belongs to Megan.
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