Two Black radio hosts in Phoenix, Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward, were given the trademark for White Lives Matter by an anonymous listener who wants to keep the slogan from being used by hate groups. This means Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is liable for trademark infringement if he tries to sell the shirts as he claimed he would last month.
From an interview in Capital B News:
Ramses Ja: Where we land on it is that somebody will own that trademark because it has fully entered into our popular vernacular. So someone will own the right to produce and sell clothing with the phrase. Still, I would rather live in a world where the profits from those sales go back to help offset the pain it causes rather than live in a world where I have nothing to do with that.
I recognize that one of two things could happen. Someone could come to our lawyer or us and say, "Hey, you have the exclusive right to make and sell those clothes in the United States of America. I would like to buy the trademark for millions of dollars." If we were to sell that trademark, for whatever amount of money, we could donate that money to causes that we feel would benefit Black people, like the NAACP or Black Lives Matter organizations. Because, realistically, we cannot stop the shirts from being made right now. We can write cease and desist to people selling these shirts right now, but that is a big monster that requires teams of lawyers and thousands of dollars that we do not have.
