Mariah Carey wanted to trademark 'Queen of Christmas' and 'Princess Christmas', but her application was rejected
- The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected Mariah Carey's bid to trademark "Queen of Christmas".
- Full-time festive singer-songwriter Elizabeth Chan had opposed the trademark application.
Mariah Carey's bid to trademark the phrases "Queen of Christmas", "QOC " and "Princess Christmas" has been rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The singer's company, Lotion LLC, failed to respond to a legal challenge from musician Elizabeth Chan that was filed in August.
Chan, a full-time festive singer-songwriter, was herself described as the "Queen of Christmas" by The New Yorker magazine in 2018. In an interview with Variety, she said Carey's attempt to trademark the festive moniker was "just not the right thing to do."
She added: "Christmas is for everyone. It's meant to be shared – it's not meant to be owned."
Carey's trademark application would have given her the legal right to stop others from using the festive titles on music and merchandise.
Chan told Variety: "If you knit a 'Queen of Christmas' sweater, you should be able to sell it on Etsy to somebody else so they can buy it for their grandma."
Chan wasn't the only person to raise concerns about Carey's festive trademark application. On Facebook, Darlene Love, who is best known for the classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", said that she'd been the "Queen of Christmas" since long before Mariah Carey's ascent to stardom, per The Times of London.
Carey has been associated with the festive season since she released "All I Want for Christmas Is You" in 1994. In December 2019, the song reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 a full 25 years after it was released, breaking a record for the longest ascent to Number 1, per Vox.
It has been said Carey wrote "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in just 15 minutes. She is thought to make about $2.5 million a year from the song, according to a study quoted by The Economist.
Representatives for Carey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.