Between watching Saturday Night Live and tweeting 140-character sentiments that end in exclamations like “Sad!” and “Very un-American,” President of the United States Donald Trump apparently has time to win trademark disputes.
His latest victory — a 10-year trademark on his name for construction services — could spell doom for Chinese luxury toilet brand Trump Toilets. Very impressive!
The company, which has been producing its toilets since 2002, claims it had no knowledge of the now-Commander in Chief when it entered the trademark.
As Trump aims to put his name on more and more Chinese products, from golf clubs to construction equipment, he is running up against the country’s nascent copyright laws, which seem to favor seniority over popularity. In China he already has 77 registered trademarks (many of which are set to renew during his term) and 49 pending applications.
READ MORE: Michael Jordan Wins Rights to Chinese Name in Trademark Case
In 2006, Trump lost a bid to trademark his construction services in China because a man named Dong Wei had filed his application two weeks prior. That decision was overturned this past September, however, as Trump is now deemed famous enough to hold the right to his own name.
It's unclear exactly what will happen to the toilet brand after this week's win, but Dong has insisted that he will not give up his trademark.
While Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric are is surely thrilled by this latest legal victory, others are concerned about the ethical soundness of the sitting president accepting the registration of valuable property rights from the world’s second largest economy.
“There can be no question it is a terrible idea,” Norman Eisen, chief White House ethics lawyer to former president Barack Obama, told the AP. “It’s fair to conclude that this is an effort to influence Mr. Trump that is relatively inexpensive for the Chinese, potentially very valuable to him, but it could be very costly for the United States.”
As they are wont to do, Trump’s camp dismissed the claims as ridiculous, pointing out that the trademark battles began before the election.
[Images via Bored Panda, Daily Mail]
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