South Carolina's first lady, Jenny Sanford, tried to trademark her name. Jenny Sanford tried to trademark name

Eight days after her husband admitted to an affair in June, South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford filed paperwork to trademark her name.

As first reported by local news outlets, a trademark request categorizing the first lady’s name as “goods and services” was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 2.


The trademark application said it would be used for “product merchandising to be sold at online retail store featuring clothing, mugs and other household items; stickers, decals, notepads.”

The trademark request has not yet been approved.

In an e-mailed comment sent through Sanford’s staff to POLITICO, South Carolina’s first lady insisted that “there was never an intention to profit off this trademark or sell merchandise, only an effort to protect my family's privacy and my name from inappropriate use and product placement going forward.”

Shirts and other paraphernalia for “Team Jenny” began popping up in South Carolina soon after GOP Gov. Mark Sanford admitted to an affair with an Argentine mistress, but the CafePress website selling the merchandise has since been taken down.

Jenny Sanford has been more assertive in stepping out of her scandal-plagued husband’s shadow in recent weeks, endorsing Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley in the race to replace her husband. She also launched her own website last week independent of the first lady’s office.

Sanford is scheduled to be interviewed by ABC News’s Barbara Walters in December for Walters's “10 Most Fascinating People” program. A portion of that interview will also air in April in conjunction with the release of her memoir, which is being published by a division of Random House.