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Greta Thunberg files application to patent her name and campaign 'Fridays For Future'

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Jan 30, 2020, 08:45 PM IST
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Greta Thunberg holding a placard to protest against climate change outside the Swedish parliament. Photograph:(AFP)

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She complained that people were hijacking her name and campaign for fraudulent purposes.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has applied to register her name and her global campaign ''Fridays For Future'' which she had founded in 2018.

The 17-year-old took to Instagram on Wednesday to express her annoyance and to inform her followers of the future course of action of her campaign.

"My name and the #FridaysForFuture movement are constantly being used for commercial purposes without any consent whatsoever," she wrote in a post she shared her Instagram account.

She complained that "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."

There had also been incidents of marketing, selling products and collection of money "in my and the movement's name," she wrote.

"That is why I've applied to register my name, Fridays For Future as trademarks. This action is to protect the movement and its activities."

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This move would allow legitimate action against persons or companies trying to hijack her name or the movement's which are not in line with its values.

"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 the social network.

She insisted that the foundation would be "completely transparent," for instance, with regard to the taxes it has to pay. 

"The foundation's aim will be to promote ecological, climatic and social sustainability, as well as mental health," the campaigner wrote. 

Thunberg, whose protests have attracted millions of young people across the globe, also said she was setting up a non-profit-making foundation to handle the financial side of "Fridays for Future", such as book royalties, donations and prize money. 

Thunberg said she had also applied to trademark "Skolstrejk for klimatet" (school strike for the climate) in Swedish which is written on the placard she has held since she started her one-person protest outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, for which she missed school.

Since then, she has become the face behind the worldwide climate change protests and movements, particularly for youngsters. 

Thunberg was also thoroughly criticized from climate changes deniers, who accused her of being manipulated by a "green lobby".

Thunberg, who was the centre of attraction at the Global Economic Forum in Davos this month, along her fellow teen activists in the movement asked politicians to listen to climate scientists and take action to control global warming.