Greta Thunberg: "I apologize to everyone" - surprising step with "Fridays for Future"

Greta Thunberg plans to register a brand - her own climate movement "Fridays for Future". Your reasoning for this sounds drastic.

• Greta Thunberg has the term “Fridays for Future” protected as a brand.
• The 17-year-old climate activist posted a detailed explanation on Instagram.
• A colleague from Thunberg assures that this is not about financial enrichment.

Stockholm - Where it says " Fridays for Future" , " Fridays for Future" should also be there. The name should be protected from misuse - that's why Greta Thunberg * has now applied for the protection of her name and that of her climate movement as trademarks . Both would be used constantly and without consent for commercial purposes, the 17-year-old Swede explained on Instagram: "That's why I applied to have my name, Fridays For Future, Skolstrejk för klimatet etc. registered as a trademark" "Skolstrejk för klimatet" is the Swedish slogan of the climate movement - in German: "school strike for the climate".

Thunberg explains on Instagram that she and her colleagues are absolutely not interested in brands. Unfortunately, this step had to be taken. First, the weekly newspaper Die Zeit reported on Thunberg's advance. Accordingly, a corresponding application was already received by the EU Intellectual Property Office in December 2019. The applicant is the foundation "Stiftelsen The Greta Thunberg and Beata Ernman Foundation" based in Stockholm, which was founded by Thunberg and her family * .

Video: who is Greta Thunberg?

Greta Thunberg wants to secure its own brand: "Unfortunately we have to do that"

It is a non-profit foundation, says Thunberg in the unusually long Instagram post, which will deal transparently with book * royalties , donations and prize money , for example. The foundation will work for ecological, climatic and social sustainability as well as mental health .

In her Instagram post, Greta Thunberg also provides information about fraud with her name: “There are individuals who pretend to be me or who claim that they 'represent' me in order to get in touch with high-ranking people, politicians, the media, artists and so on get. Please be warned that there is and be skeptical if you are contacted by 'me', ”warned Thunberg. "I apologize to anyone who has already done this," she continues. “Fridays for Future is a global movement that I founded. It belongs to everyone who participates in it, especially the young people. It cannot - and may not - be used for individual or commercial purposes. "

National coach Jogi Löw recently commented on the climate movement initiated by Greta. And he also has a clear opinion on Greta Thunberg himself.

Greta Thunberg: Trademark law on "Fridays for Future": "There is no intention to make money from it"

As Die Zeit has researched, one of Thunberg's fellow campaigners, Janine O'Keeffe , wants to secure the trademark right for certain products with the slogan "Fridays for Future" - for example, for backpacks or hats. "There is no intention to make money from it "O'Keeffe said to the newspaper. Like Thunberg , she wants to protect the climate movement from abuse.

It's hard to dispute that “Fridays for Future” has a certain radiance. In "Anglicism of the Year", the addition "... for Future" in Berlin just emerged as the winner. The movement is supported by activists worldwide. Greta Thunberg , however, may have recently announced her retirement as an activist. The Swedish climate activist often has to face criticism from various actors. Now the Bundestag member Philipp Amthor (CDU) commented on Greta Thunberg - and he proposes an explosive theory. Party colleague Friedrich Merz also has his own hypothesis about Greta and her fellow campaigners.

Greta Thunberg and FC Bayern Munich? Actually, both have little to do with each other. But Mehmet Scholl now called an FCB star "Greta Thunberg of German football".

frs with dpa

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.