Add Category
Updated
Multi-award winning actress Meryl Streep has filed an application to trademark her name to prevent anyone else from exploiting it.
The application was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on January 22.
It requests that the name Meryl Streep be trademarked for entertainment services, movie appearances, speaking engagements and autographs.
The application would give her exclusive rights to the use of her name in the entertainment industry and protect it from unauthorised commercial use.
Streep, 68, last week extended her record to 21 Academy Award nominations, this time for her role in The Post.
She has won three Oscars, three Emmys and six Golden Globes during her 40-year career on stage, screen and television.
It is not clear why Streep would file a trademark application at this stage in her career and her lawyer and publicist did not return a request for comment.
Many celebrities trademark their names or catch phrases to protect their intellectual property, stop other people using them without permission, or to earn cash from products bearing their name.
Other celebrities who have trademarked their names include rapper 50 Cent and football and fashion couple David and Victoria Beckham.
Taylor Swift has filed about 60 trademark applications in the last 10 years, according to Patent Office records, including for phrases from her songs including "this sick beat" and "nice to meet you, where you been?" for use on clothing, hair accessories and notebooks.
Streep has joined the cast of HBO's award-winning drama series Big Little Lies for its second season.
She will play Mary Louise Wright, mother-in-law of Nicole Kidman's character Celeste Wright.
ABC/Reuters
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, actor, law-crime-and-justice, united-states
First posted