Environmental activist Gret Thunberg has found a creative way to stop others from slandering her name — by patenting it!
On Wednesday, Greta announced that she has registered both her own name and her “Fridays For Future” global protest movement as trademarks. The move comes after there were multiple attempts to hijack her name for fraudulent purposes.
“My name and the #FridaysForFuture movement are constantly being used for commercial purposes without any consent whatsoever,” the 17-year-old Swede wrote on her Instagram account.
“I assure you, I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interest in trademarks. But unfortunately, it needs to be done.”
Greta became the face of climate change in August 2018, when she skipped school to spend the day outside Sweden’s parliament with a sign labeled, “school strike for climate”. Since then, she has become a role model for young people around the world. But fame comes at a price.
Greta continued that “there are still people who are trying to impersonate me or falsely claim that they ‘represent’ me in order to communicate with high profile people, politicians, media, artists, etc.”
There had also been instances of marketing, product selling and people collecting money “in my and the movement’s name,” she wrote.
