Food Companies Are Scrambling to Trademark the Word 'Brexit'

Despite its negative connotations, dozens of food brands are looking to trademark the word "Brexit." According to the Guardian, at least half a dozen food and beverage makers have been vying to trademark the name for their products since the UK voted to leave the European Union last month.

A search for the term via the UK's Intellectual Property Office turns up numerous results, including Brexit tea, English Brexit tea — a playful(?) twist on the traditional English Breakfast tea — and Brexit biscuits.

Brits aren't the only ones looking to profit off of the term, which is of course a mashup of "Britain" and "exit." Boston Beer Company, the group behind Sam Adams, has filed an application to trademark the word in the U.S. According to the application filed June 24, the term would be used to market a line of hard cider.

That same day, another company also filed an application to trademark the word. That company, Quicksilver Scientific, hopes to use it on a line of vitamins and nutritional supplements. That move might actually be the most successful of the crop, considering Brexit sounds vaguely like a laxative you'd find lurking in the back of someone's medicine cabinet.

As the Guardian points out, most of the trademark applications were made "within 48 hours of the result coming in — which feels much more like ill-thought-out opportunism than considered marketing." In other words, it's unlikely that Brexit-branded beers and biscuits will ever actually see the light of day.

Brexit, which has dominated the media cycle in recent weeks, had already had a detrimental effect on global markets. But the financial industry isn't the only one to be affected by the British exit — in fact, agriculture and food will likely see plenty of changes, too.

• Brexit: Your New Favourite Biscuit Brand? [The Guardian]

• Sam Adams Wants to Trademark 'Brexit' for a Hard Cider [E]

• What Will Brexit Mean for Food in the UK? [E]

• All Brexit coverage [E]