White-owned Company Trademarks ‘Yoruba’ In UK

A White-owned company, Timbuktu Limited based in the UK has trademarked the word, YORUBA and is opposing anyone who desires to use the word alone or in a combination with other words.

Yoruba refers to the people of mostly South West Nigeria and the language that they speak.

According to Twitter user, Culture Tree @culturetreetv, the issue of the trademark came to light when they (Culture Tree) tried to trademark one of their programs, Yoruba Stars.

Timbuktu Limited reportedly opposed the application and later offered to sell the trademark. An offer which was refused.

Culture Tree tweeted, “Did you know that @TimbuktuGlobal a retail company owned by two WHITE-BRITISH people from Lancashire who have no affiliation with Yoruba language or tribe have trademarked the word ‘YORUBA’ and are opposing anyone else from using it?

“I went ahead and registered my trademark of ‘Yoruba Stars’ as I was sure there wouldn’t be an issue. A few months later I received an email from the IPO that
@TimbuktuGlobal had opposed me registering the trademarkducts or have anything to do with Yoruba at all.

“I feel this is the height of cultural appropriation and I’ve informed @timbutuglobal that I intend to make this case public. I told them I do not think Africans or the global media for that matter would take kindly to a company with roots in the North of England attempting to claim sole ownership of a birthright belonging to the people of another continent.”

Checks on the social media pages of the company show that Timbuktu Limited has deactivated it’s Twitter handle and disabled comments on its Instagram page.