Topline
A small business owner who was the target of a vicious online campaign after she successfully trademarked the phrase “Hot Girls Read” has said she’ll abandon the trademark in an attempt to “right my wrongs” after she was slammed for trying to monetize a community-created slogan used by dozens of other businesses.
A person positions books ahead of the Turin International Book Fair.
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Key Facts
Allie Mitrovich, who founded Allie Rose Co. in 2020 selling book-related merchandise, posted on her shop’s Instagram account last week that she’d successfully trademarked the phrase “Hot Girls Read” in the categories of bookmarks, stickers, notebooks, notepads, sweatshirts and t-shirts.
She then said she was aware of other small businesses selling merchandise in those categories that featured the saying, and asked they “please remove those listings from ur site as soon as possible 💛with love !!!!”
The move has sparked one of the biggest controversies in the brief history of BookTok—a massively popular community on TikTok focused on books and reading—and has led to hundreds of videos and comments slamming Mitrovich (she ultimately turned off the ability to see or add new comments on her TikTok videos).
Critics accused her of cultural appropriation (some argue “Hot Girls Read” derives from the broader “Hot Girl” cultural movement popularized by Megan Thee Stallion) and started to do deep-dives into the merchandise she sells, claiming she created and sold products heavily based on other brands’ trademarked works (specifically Pantone and Little Miss).
The anger led to the creation of a GoFundMe by fantasy author Michele Khalil, who raised $2,000 to formally petition Mitrovich’s trademark be revoked. There are thousands of hats, shirts, cups, stickers, bookmarks, key chains and other products for sale on Etsy using the phrase, and one other small business owner is now selling a sticker reading “Hot Girls Don’t Trademark Community Phrases” in response to the controversy.
In a video announcing she’ll abandon the trademark Monday afternoon, Mitrovich said she was “so sorry to every small business that I harmed in doing this.”
BIG NUMBER
19. That’s how many products on the Allie Rose Co. website feature the slogan, from a $3 bookmark to a $59 sweatshirt. Mitrovich has said she’ll donate all proceeds from that merchandise to two literacy charities, Room to Read and Read to Feed.
Key background
A trademark protects a word, phrase, logo or other identifier for commercial use in particular categories—like apparel, books or events—but does not grant ownership of the phrase in every context. Registering a trademark can give the owner stronger legal tools to stop people whose copy-cat products could cause consumer confusion, but it does not automatically give them exclusive rights over all uses of the phrase. In many cases, people who were using the phrase commercially before the trademark owner’s claim can take advantage of the so-called “prior use” defenses and, sometimes, can continue using it in the markets where they established rights first. “Hot Girls Read” isn’t the first trademark in the world of books to have gone wrong. Self-published romance author Faleena Hopkins—whose books include Cocky Romantic and Cocky Cowboy—trademarked the word “cocky” in 2018 and faced swift backlash from other authors. The Authors Guild and Romance Writers of America later got the trademark overturned, but not before authors were forced to suspend their Amazon listings and change titles and book covers.
TANGENT
Outdoor apparel company Patagonia recently sued a drag performer using the stage name Pattie Gonia, arguing that her name, merchandise and attempt to trademark “Pattie Gonia” are too similar to Patagonia’s brand. The company claimed the performer, whose real name is Wyn Wiley, could cause consumer confusion. Pattie Gonia says the lawsuit is an attempt to force her to give up a name she has used for years, while Patagonia insists it is only looking to enforce its trademark rights.
