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Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg trademarks her name

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has applied to register her name and that of the Fridays For Future movement she founded in 2018, which has gone global and catapulted her to international fame.

The move would allow the Swedish teenager to take legal action against people or companies that tried to use her name or the movement’s that are not in line with its values, she said.

“I assure you, I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interests in trademarks. But unfortunately it needs to be done,” she said on Instagram on Wednesday.

Ms Thunberg said she had also applied to trademark “Skolstrejk for klimatet”, school strike for the climate in Swedish – the wording on the placard she has held since she started her one-person protest outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, for which she missed school.

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Impostors, trademarks, commercial interests, royalties and foundation… First: Unfortunately 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. Please be aware that this is happening and be extremely suspicious if you are contacted by ”me” or someone saying they ”represent” me. I apologize to anyone who has been contacted – and even misled – by this kind of behavior. Second: My name and the #FridaysForFuture movement are constantly being used for commercial purposes without any consent whatsoever. It happens for instance in marketing, selling of products and people collecting money in my and the movement’s name. That is why I’ve applied to register my name, Fridays For Future, Skolstrejk för klimatet etc as trademarks. This action is to protect the movement and its activities. It is also needed to enable my pro bono legal help to take necessary action against people or corporations etc who are trying to use me and the movement in purposes not in line with what the movement stands for. I assure you, I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interests in trademarks. But unfortunately it needs to be done. Fridays For Future is a global movement founded by me. It belongs to anyone taking part in it, above all the young people. It can – and must – not be used for individual or commercial purposes. And third: together with my family I’m setting up a foundation. It’s already registered and existing, but it not is not yet up and running. This is strictly nonprofit of course and there are no interests in philanthropy. It is just something that is needed for handling money (book royalties, donations, prize money etc) in a completely transparent way. For instance, taxes have to be paid before we can give them away to specified purposes and charities. This takes a lot of time and work, and when the foundation is fully up and running I will tell you more. The foundation’s aim will be to promote ecological, climatic and social sustainability as well as mental health. Love/ Greta

A post shared by Greta Thunberg (@gretathunberg) on

“My name and the #FridaysForFuture movement are constantly being used for commercial purposes without any consent whatsoever,” she wrote on Instagram.

“It happens, for instance, in marketing, selling of products and people collecting money in my and the movement’s name.”

Ms Thunberg also said she and her family were setting up a nonprofit foundation to handle money from such things as book royalties, donations and prizes.

It will aim to “promote ecological, climatic and social sustainability as well as mental health,” she wrote.

Ms Thunberg, who took centre stage at the Global Economic Forum in Davos this month, and her fellow young activists in the movement want politicians to listen to climate scientists and take action to curb global warming.

-with AAP

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