Someone Is Trying to Trademark Jools Lebron’s Viral “Very Demure, Very Mindful”

The feel-good meme of the year is now at the center of a potential legal headache.

A Washington resident by the name of Jefferson Bates has filed paperwork to register the trademark for the phrase “Very Demure, Very Mindful,” according to paperwork obtained by TMZ. However, Bates appears to have nothing to do with the megaviral phrase, which was created and popularized by trans TikToker Jools Lebron.

The four-word phrase has been in the zeitgeist for less than two weeks, but achieved a rare sort of virality that catapulted Lebron into a national spotlight. Since posting the TikTok, which has been viewed over 47 million times, Lebron has been on Jimmy Kimmel Live while RuPaul guest-hosted, and has even linked up with Netflix to create a “very demure, very mindful” row of programming on the streamer’s interface.

Bates, who filed the paperwork, says they want to use the phrase for “advertising, marketing and promotional services,” according to TMZ.

Shortly after the phrase went viral, Lebron, who is a trans woman, shared that the money she has earned from her virality has allowed her to finance her transition. “One day, I was playing cashier and making videos on my break,” she said in a subsequent TikTok post. “And now, I’m flying across [the] country to host events, and I’m going to be able to finance the rest of my transition.”

Over the weekend, an emotional Lebron posted a video, which has since been deleted, to TikTok in which she talks about the trademark filing. The caption on the video, which remains online in a Pop Crave post, says “When you didn’t trademark fast enough.”

“This merch situation is really fucking me up,” she says while crying in bed. “I invested so much money and time into this and I feel like I did it wrong. I feel like I didn’t try hard enough. I wanted this to do so much for my family and my transition and I just feel like I dropped the ball.”

After Lebron uploaded the video, several news outlets seemed to report that Lebron had lost the trademark; however, as pointed out in a subsequent post by TMZ, though Bates filed paperwork, and it has been assigned to an examiner, it has not yet been reviewed and the trademark has not been granted. Also, while a trademark is under review, other parties are able to challenge the application.

Fans of Lebron and the phrase have now adopted a wait-and-see approach to the filing, as many have noted that they would not purchase merch unless they were sure that Lebron would benefit financially from sales.

“We will NOT be buying any merch from anyone that isnt you love,” one person wrote.

“Sorry but if my money isn’t going directly to jools if I buy merch that says ‘very demure’ then I’m not buying it,” wrote another person on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. “Jefferson Bates is such a loser for doing that to her.”

Lebron seemed to be in better spirits in a post published to her TikTok on Sunday. Appearing alongside the caption, “How I come out of my weekend depression in a demure manner,” Lebron joked about crying to her followers.

“I don’t do ‘Let’s make a lot of posts,’ I do very simple,” she said. “I cry in front of 4 million people, I wake up from a 3-day nap, I have a good cookie, I do a little water, I have my little zhuzh, I watch my little YouTubes, and I come back.”

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