BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • Trending

#JeSuisCharlie creator: Phrase cannot be a trademark

  • Published
    14 January 2015
Share page
About sharing
Translation: "I am Charlie"Image source, @Ivalay / Twitter
BBC Trending
What's popular and why

Millions have declared "Je Suis Charlie" on social media - but now over 50 people have tried to trademark the image in France alone, and the creator of the campaign is angry.

He created the original "Je Suis Charlie" picture - but now he's worried that commercial interests might ruin the sentiment behind the phrase. Joachim Roncin lives with his family five minutes away from Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris, and he works for the French edition of Stylist, a fashion magazine. When he and his colleagues first heard of last week's attacks, they fell into a stunned silence.

"We were in the production room working on our next issue, and at one point one of my colleagues saw reports of the shooting on Twitter," he told BBC Trending.

"We were all shocked. I saw messages like, 'I'm horrified' and 'I'm disgusted' repeated all around the world - all of these messages of despair," he said. "I searched for the Charlie Hebdo logo and I looked at deeply two or three minutes and I thought about what it meant to me.

"I was so hurt and so speechless ... the cartoonists working for Charlie Hebdo were pushing the limits all the time just to shake things up, and it's always good to have people who shake things, because this is what changes the world."

Roncin fashioned a simple graphic in the same font as the magazine's title. Although he had only around 400 followers on Twitter at the time, it quickly spread, and in the last week #JeSuisCharlie has been tweeted around 7m times - one of the most repeated news-related hastags ever, external (although rumours suggesting it's Twitter's most popular tag of all time are off the mark, external).

"I really didn't make it to make a buzz or anything," he says. "Tons and tons of ordinary people sent me messages of congratulations. But it's very strange to receive congratulations on something that's so horrible ... so at first I did not say 'thank you.'

"Eventually I understood they were thanking me because they were finding out what they themselves were thinking through this message. They were finding out what they were trying to express.

"This is what Je Suis Charlie actually means: I am free, I am not afraid."

Roncin says he was soon getting a huge amount of media attention and was dismayed at some inaccurate reporting - for instance one outlet reported that he was afraid to show his face for fear of reprisals. (He declined a request to talk on camera to BBC Trending because he said he did not want to become a figurehead or leader of a movement or detract from the focus on the victims of the attacks.)

But more recently another issue has come up - the possible use of "Je Suis Charlie" for commercial purposes. Reports indicate that there have been more than 50 French trademark applications for the phrase, external - none connected with Roncin.

Roncin says he's only agreed to allow one organisation, the media freedom NGO Reporters Sans Frontières, external (Reporters Without Borders), to use his original artwork. And he's consulted lawyers in the hopes of stopping any commercial use of the slogan.

"It's horrible to think for one second that this slogan that is full of hope, someone will own it," he says.

"I want this message to stay pure. The four million people who were on the streets in Paris on Sunday - they shouted this message. They shouted it on the streets of London and New York and all around the world. I would be disgusted if someone just tried to make money off it."

Blog by Mike Wendling

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending

All our stories are at bbc.com/trending

Top stories

  • Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine talks next week

    • Published
      1 hour ago
  • Israel rejects international criticism of Gaza City takeover plan

    • Published
      6 hours ago
  • Israel's Gaza City plan means more misery for Palestinians and big risk for Netanyahu

    • Published
      12 hours ago

More to explore

  • Prince Andrew book seals his fate for any return

    Prince Andrew, head and shoulders, April 2025
  • 'JD Vance sends warning to UK' and 'Scam by me'

    A composite image of the front pages of the i Paper and the Sun on 9 August 2025
  • 'People are angry': Behind the wave of asylum hotel protests

    Protesters at Canary Wharf
  • Nasa Apollo missions: Stories of the last Moon men

    Harrison Schmitt is photographed next to the United States flag on the lunar surface during the Apollo 17 mission. The highest part of the flag appears to point toward our planet Earth in the distant background. Its red and white stripes are also reflected in the visor of Schmitt's helmet.
  • 'An escape from feeling lonely': The Seoul 'convenience stores' fighting isolation

    A lively and colorful pedestrian street in Seoul, filled with vibrant crosswalk designs, unique shops, and bustling activity. A woman stands in the middle of a zebra crossing in a winter jacket carrying the sign 'escape room, half price'
  • What we know about Israel's plan to take over Gaza City

    Palestinians hold out pots and bowls, jostling to reach the front of a line as they await meals distributed by aid groups in Gaza City
  • US shrugs off Gaza escalation - drifting further away from allies

    US President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives for a meeting at the West Wing of the White House
  • Big Mags: The paedophile-hunting granny who built a heroin empire

    Mags Haney outside her home in the Raploch talking to two police officers. The photo from the mid 1990s shows Haney with short bleached blond hair and big earrings. She is wearing a pink cardigan and and orange t-shirt. A number of locals are standing around watching the scene
  • Summer Essential: Your family’s guide to the summer, delivered to your inbox every Tuesday

    concentric circles ranging from orange to yellow to represent the sun, with a blue sky background
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    'JD Vance sends warning to UK' and 'Scam by me'

  2. 2

    'People are angry': Behind the wave of asylum hotel protests

  3. 3

    Prince Andrew book seals his fate for any return

  4. 4

    Elon Musk's AI accused of making explicit AI Taylor Swift videos

  5. 5

    Jim Lovell, who guided Apollo 13 safely back to Earth, dies aged 97

  6. 6

    Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine talks next week

  7. 7

    Faith, family and fish - the unlikely bond between JD Vance and David Lammy

  8. 8

    US diplomat says UK would have lost WW2 with Starmer as leader

  9. 9

    Sturgeon memoir describes arrest as 'worst day of my life'

  10. 10

    Police 'sat on information' before man, 80, killed

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • Your latest reality TV obsession has landed on iPlayer

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Destination X
  • Jacob Elordi stars in explosive war drama

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    The Narrow Road to the Deep North
  • Inside the front-line fight against cybercriminals

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Panorama: Fighting Cyber Criminals
  • A rare glimpse into the world of rope access

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Our Lives: High Stakes
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.