--- description: The woman says the name "Minions and Me" was actually inspired by 'Spy Kids' title: Cleaning Company Told to Stop Branding Business With Minions image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72981c87eaa56ae0/69885a62cd1bba7d926fc365/minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Universal Orders Cleaner to Stop Branding Business With Minions by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 21, 2015 12:13 PM CUT  Universal Pictures by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 21, 2015 12:13 PM CUT Universal Studios has asked a woman in Christchurch, New Zealand to [stop branding her cleaning company](http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/71285291/kiwi-cleaner-minions-and-me-slapped-with-hollywood-legal-action "undefined") with characters from the movie _Minions_. Bridgit Veenings says she originally named her company “Minions and Me Cleaning Ltd” because her children enjoyed watching _Spy Kids_ when they were young, and particularly liked the character Alexander Minion (played by Tony Shalhoub). She registered her company in October, 2013, two months before Universal trademarked _Minions,_ according to New Zealand news site Stuff.co.nz. (The minions characters earlier appeared in the 2010 film _Despicable Me_) Though she says the name did not come from that animated film, she did use images of the cartoon characters on her van, website and online listings. Universal has asked Veenings to stop using the images as well as the name; Veenings says she will remove the cartoons, but wants to continue calling her company Minions and Me, noting that the word is “in the dictionary” and explaining, “To me, a minion is a hard-working person that does things that other people generally don’t do.” A lawyer for Universal told Stuff.co.nz that she couldn’t comment until she had received word from the studio. \[[Stuff.co.nz](http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/71285291/kiwi-cleaner-minions-and-me-slapped-with-hollywood-legal-action "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4006078/minions-and-me-cleaner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4006078/minions-and-me-cleaner/"},"headline":"Universal Orders Cleaner to Stop Branding Business With Minions","datePublished":"2015-08-21T12:13:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:20:47.340Z","description":"The woman says the name \"Minions and Me\" was actually inspired by Spy Kids","url":"https://time.com/4006078/minions-and-me-cleaner/","keywords":["movies","New Zealand"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72981c87eaa56ae0/69885a62cd1bba7d926fc365/minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72981c87eaa56ae0/69885a62cd1bba7d926fc365/minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"minions","caption":"minions","creditText":"Universal Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4006078/minions-and-me-cleaner/","name":"Universal Orders Cleaner to Stop Branding Business With Minions"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Minions - Official Trailer (HD) - Illumination","description":"Minions - Official Trailer (HD) - Illumination","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ykXT4aY4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-04T06:27:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ykXT4aY4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4006078/minions-and-me-cleaner/","duration":"PT2M47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4006078/minions-and-me-cleaner/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```