Beyoncé and Jay-Z have lost a battle to trademark the name of their baby daughter Blue Ivy.
The celebrity couple had filed legal papers to protect the name of their first born child soon after her birth in January.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z were said to be planning to launch a range of baby products and clothes called Blue Ivy that would have added to their already substantial fortune of more than $1.1 billion.
But the pair have lost out on trade marking their daughter’s name to a small wedding planner based in Boston who had called her company Blue Ivy in 2009.
The ruling from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office means Beyoncé and Jay-Z have no legal right to keep the name to themselves.
Veronica Alexandra, the owner of Blue Ivy, found herself up against the most powerful couple in show business soon after they revealed the unusual name for their daughter.
Days after the birth of Blue Ivy Carter in January Jay-Z and his wife filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect the baby’s name.
The move followed two unsuccessful applications from New York based fashion designers who tried to trademark the name.
The trademark office denied both filings, saying the name belonged to a “very famous infant” and consumers would falsely assume that the products were approved by the celebrity parents.
But event and wedding planner Veronica Alexandra, 32, said she was forced to file her own application as she feared she could be put out of business if the power celebrity couple were successful.
She said: “My company had been called Blue Ivy since 2009. I came up with the name, and if they had won my business could have been restricted.
“It was important for me to protect the name of my company. We are very successful as wedding planners and wanted to stay that way.
“Of course Blue Ivy is a lovely name, but I had to make sure that I would be able to continue using it for my business.”
Veronica Alexandra, whose office is in Boston, Massachusetts, said she had no hard feelings towards Beyoncé and her husband.
A photograph of the pair on her company’s website says: “Congrats to our soul mate couple with baby Blue Ivy.”
Veronica Alexandra, a former Harvard graduate, chose the name Blue Ivy to make her company stand-out among the crowed market of wedding planners.
She said: “Blue is a very powerful color used by any companies and Ivy conjures up a very romantic image. I was very happy with the name, and of course business spiked after Beyoncé called her baby Blue Ivy. We do between 40 and 60 weddings a year.”
Veronica Alexandra said she would happily relinquish her rights to the Blue Ivy name if the couple were to make her an offer.
“If Beyoncé and Jay-Z want to buy me out I’d welcome that,” she said.
The couple has never revealed their reasons for naming their daughter Blue Ivy.
The color blue is said to be Jay-Z’s favorite having released three albums called Blueprint.
That middle name “Ivy”, reportedly references the Roman numeral IV for 4 – a significant digit for both Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Beyoncé ‘s birthday is September 4, Jay-Z’s is December 4, they were married on April 4, 2008, and the singer’s latest album is entitled 4.
