She made ‘very demure’ go viral. Now she wants to trademark its use.

“Very demure, very mindful” has become the latest vocabulary defining the internet’s summer. TikTok creator Jools Lebron is working to trademark the use of her now-viral words. Lebron filed to trademark “very demure, very mindful” for various entertainment and advertising services, including the promotion of beauty products, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Social media’s love for “very demure” content started in early August when Lebron took to TikTok to describe the hair and makeup she was wearing to work. Her delivery took off and she kept going, with “mindful” and “cutesy” flooding the internet as scores of fans, including big-name celebrities, shared their own playful takes to describe just about any detail of day-to-day life. Can you trademark a viral phrase? Yes. But in the U.S., there needs to be an attached commercial use. “It’s not just coming up with a phrase [...] (or) using it on social media and making it go viral,” said Alexandra J. Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University, explaining that there must be a connection to the sale of concrete goods or services. She calls trademarks a “source indicator,” as they help consumers understand who is producing what they’re buying now, but not necessarily who came up with a name in the first place. “And if (someone else) created a social media marketing service and called it ‘very demure, very mindful social media marketing,’ that would confuse consumers because they’re gonna think it’s associated with (Jools Lebron),” said Casey Fiesler, an associate professor of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder. In today’s ever-digitized world of online trends, creators are increasingly expressing concerns about getting credited for their work. And for something like trademark rights, experts stress it’s a battle of both getting there first and having resources to see it through. Beyond trademark-specific disputes, Fiesler added that creators seeing their work stolen and reposted on other platforms for monetization continue to be a “huge problem” today, but she hopes the tide is starting to turn. That includes Lebron, who has been so widely-credited for the “very demure” trend. This article was provided by The Associated Press.