*Michelle Obama’s new podcast has sparked a naming conflict with a UK-based trio who run a production with the same name. The group took to social media, asking the former First Lady to consider the impact on their “hard work” and “spare a thought for three black men trying to make a better place.”
On March 12, Michelle launched her podcast, ‘IMO’, which she co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson. Shortly after its release, the British trio, known for their podcast In My Opinion (hosted by Uzoma, DT, and Mulinde) raised concerns over the name similarity. They fear it could overshadow their work, which they’ve been developing since 2020 and registered in the UK in 2021, Daily Mail reports.
Although the group hasn’t trademarked their podcast in the United States, they appealed to Michelle to reconsider the title to avoid confusion. The three men issued a message via their TikTok account, writing, “To our forever first lady Michelle Obama, we respect everything you’ve done for the culture for the American people, for the cause.”
They continued, “Obviously we are aware that you launched your podcast, and we don’t think you did it maliciously but we are three young black boys from London who started a podcast five years ago.”
“Since five years ago we’ve trademarked the name In My Opinion and IMO podcast. And we don’t want our work to be drowned by your celebrity status, do you know what I mean – you’re big, you’re powerful and you’ve got a big machine,” the trio shared.
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“We don’t want our hard work to go amiss when your podcast launches. So, we’re asking kindly, please share a thought for us three young black men that are just trying to make a better place.”
The group noted, “Our podcast doesn’t talk about misogyny, doesn’t talk about putting down women. We uplift the culture, uplift the community.”
They added, “We really hope you can reconsider the name you’ve chosen for your podcast as to not confuse our listeners and drown out our voice that we’ve worked so hard to build.”
“Please Michelle Obama, we are praying that you will give us a chance, let us talk and let’s see what we can do to resolve this matter. As three young black men that were saying ‘yes we can’ for Barack Obama. We still love you guys,” the trio concluded.
The three men are not accusing Obama of infringement because their trademark is not registered in America.
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