Right royal battle brewing over Love Soup

A self-appointed ‘‘Ma¯ori sovereign queen’’ based in Rotorua has attempted to colonise Love Soup, a group of volunteers who feed the poor.

The ‘‘queen’’, Mia NathanJoyce, trademarked the Love Soup Aotearoa name on July 31, 2017, with Intellectual Property of New Zealand.

The trademark comes four years after Tokoroa woman Julie King created her volunteer group of the same name, which has now expanded to Auckland, Rotorua and Wha¯nga¯rei.

King, who isn’t paid to do the work, said she is concerned with the agenda that Nathan-Joyce is running and hopes she does not damage the good name of the group.

‘‘We don’t know what claims she is making under our name, it’s worrying because we are the ones that will be made to answer,’’ King said.

‘‘She’s selling firewood and she did a firewood raffle under our name. She did deposit $102 in our Rotorua Love Soup account and $47.50 in our Tokoroa account. And now she believes she owns us.’’

Nathan-Joyce has never volunteered to make meals or sandwiches for the hungry.

In an interview with television programme Fair Go, Nathan-Joyce was unapologetic about her claims over the organisation.

‘‘I created my own entity. I’m an owner of an entity,’’ she said.

‘‘They don’t have the authority to tell me what I can and what I can’t do with my own entity. Anyone could have done it … Someone has to organise and run it.’’

King said some of the messages she has received from NathanJoyce had been condescending, since the self-proclaimed queen trademarked the name.

‘‘It was really stressful at the start because she was just getting in the way of the work.

‘‘We don’t have the time or the money to get a lawyer.

‘‘The messages she was sending were kind of insulting.

‘‘She would write stuff like: ‘Get off your butts and get to work.’

‘‘We had to put disclaimers on our pages about a month ago to make clear we weren’t associated with her.’’

King hopes Nathan-Joyce sees reason and gives up on her pursuit to own the name and the goodhearted individuals who have helped King in her labour of love.

‘‘We just want to give those that need us hope.

‘‘We do it for free and I have never seen a reason to trademark our name.

‘‘How can you trademark love?’’