A six-year-old girl has had her passport application rejected after the Home Office claimed her name breached trademark rules.
Khaleesi Holloway, named after Game of Thrones’s “Khaleesi”, Daenerys Targaryen, was due to jet off for a £2,000 trip to Disneyland Paris – but her visit was put on hold following the Home Office clamp-down.
The Passport Office, which is run by the Home Office, claimed it was unable to issue a passport unless Warner Brothers agreed because it owned the trademark for the name Khaleesi.
Officials initially told Khaleesi’s mother Lucy to contact the American film and entertainment studio, which owns Game of Thrones producers HBO, to get permission.
The Holloways had been hoping to visit Disneyland Paris
PA
However, the Home Office has since confirmed that a mistake had been made and that the application is now being processed.
Lucy, 39, from Swindon, said: “I didn’t understand and felt frustrated. If she could get a birth certificate, would something not have been flagged up then? I never thought you could trademark a name.”
The 39-year-old told the BBC she was “devastated” by the news – adding: “It was the first I’ve heard of such a thing – I was astonished”.
Holloway sought legal advice to try and get to the bottom of the Home Office mixup, and was informed by her solicitors that names couldn’t be trademarked in the first place – and while there are copyrighted aspects of the Game of Thrones series, these only related to goods and services.
READ NEXT:
The Passport Office claimed it was unable to issue a passport to Khaleesi
PA
The Passport Office then called Lucy to apologise – and admitted it had made a “mistake”.
Officials later explained there had been a misunderstanding, with copyright-related naming guidelines only applying to people changing their names by deed poll.
Lucy said: “He advised me that they should be able to process my daughter’s passport now.
But she claimed the issue had only been accounted for thanks to media buzz around Khaleesi’s name.
Lucy had named her daughter after Khaleesi, a title held by Game of Thrones’s Daenerys Targaryen
HBO
“If I hadn’t posted this on social media, nothing would have been done… I would have been stuck, not knowing what to do – people contacted me about similar experiences.”
But Lucy has held off on booking the trip to Disneyland until she’s received Khaleesi’s passport, saying: “I am hoping the passport will be issued soon and was promised that they would call back in a few days to see if it had progressed.”
She continued: “I think there might be other people in this situation, that they may have had their passports declined recently because of something like this. Hopefully, they now know it can be resolved.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We can confirm the application is being processed and apologise to the family for the delay.”
Post comments (0)