A politician in Spain is reportedly considering suing Meghan Markle for seemingly plagiarizing one of the country’s coats of arms for her new brand As Ever’s logo.
Xisca Mora, who is the mayor of the Mallorcan town of Porreres, is “studying the case with the legal services of the Consistory to see what course of action should be taken from the municipal level,” Ara Balears, a local newspaper in the Balearic Islands, reported Tuesday.
While Mora is said to be weighing her options, she also appeared to relish in the fact that Markle’s logo may bring more attention to her small municipality, which has a population of only about 5,000 people.
“Many people around the world will become aware that in Mallorca there is an inland town that has this coat of arms,” she said, according to the outlet, adding, “We feel international. It’s surreal.”
Porreres’ coat of arms features a palm tree in the center and two birds flying toward it. The Duchess of Sussex’s logo is nearly identical except that it is black and white, as opposed to color, and it is unclear whether the birds are the same breed.
Page Six has reached out to Markle’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.
The “Suits” alum, 43, announced via Instagram Tuesday that she had rebranded her lifestyle company American Riviera Orchard to As Ever following a series of trademark setbacks with its first logo.
“Last year, I had thought, ‘You know what? American Riviera, that sounds like such a great name.’ It’s my neighborhood, it’s a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area,” she explained in a video.
“So I thought about it, and I’ve been waiting for a moment to share a name that I had secured in 2022, and this is the moment, and it’s called As Ever.”
Markle simultaneously launched a new website for the brand, which features the alleged copycat logo on its homepage.
Despite the plagiarism accusations, the logo seemingly also holds special meaning for the Sussexes.
In August 2022, Markle told the Cut that palm trees were “one of the first things” her husband, Prince Harry, saw when they first walked around their $14 million Montecito, Calif., mansion.
“See how they’re connected at the bottom? He goes: ‘My love, it’s us,’” she told the publication.
Markle also mentioned at the time that the couple’s son, Prince Archie, now 5, would walk by the trees every day and say, “Hi, Mama. Hi, Papa.”
Harry, for his part, has a connection to hummingbirds, as he wrote about them in his January 2023 memoir, “Spare,” while reflecting on his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
The prince, 40, wrote in the book, “Soon after our return, a hummingbird got into the house.
“I had a devil of a time guiding it out. … A mate said: ‘Could be a sign, you know?’ … Visitors, as it were. Aztecs thought them reincarnated warriors. Spanish explorers called them ‘resurrection birds.’”
Markle has been accused of plagiarizing at least once before when she released a children’s book in 2018 that featured a similar title and artwork to that of a British author. The writer, though, defended the duchess at the time, saying he did not “see any similarities” in their works.
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