Filed for Trademark the Phrase make America Great Again
Fifty-fifty as Donald Trump stumps for votes and kisses babies on the trail of the US presidential campaign, he's clearly still a man of affairs at middle. And that means leaving no bang-up (and potentially valuable) slogan un-trademarked.
In July, just a few weeks after he announced he was seeking the Republican nomination, he obtained a trademark for the campaign slogan "Make America Bang-up Once more". Trump had practical for the mark all the way dorsum in November 2012, immediately after Mitt Romney lost the election to Barack Obama.
The registration covers election-related services such as "promoting public awareness of political issues". Yet, terminal Baronial Trump filed another trademark application for the same slogan in connection with the right to put it on all manner of clothing from T-shirts to tank tops and hats.
Since the presidential candidate started wearing his red chapeau begetting the slogan, the production has become a must-take among his supporters. It can be bought in different colours for US$25 on official Trump-related websites.
Trump's fans accept, however, recently been offered alternative – and unauthorised – products. Replica versions of the hats begetting Trump's slogan are sold by many for every bit niggling as United states of america$4.99. And the tycoon-turned-politician has not waited long to protect his trademark and is currently going afterward the people backside these knock-offs.
One such seller is CafePress, a well-known popular website that allows its customers to print their ain designs on T-shirts, java mugs and other products. Trump'south lawyer sent the company a alarm letter just a few days agone, request it to stop infringing the registered trademark.
But can you really trademark a slogan? And is information technology wise for a candidate asking for votes to besides demand they pay up to don hats and shirts that bear it?
Distinctive non descriptive
Slogans are important elements in advertizing campaigns as brand owners hope that consumers volition link them with their products and services, as well as their primary brand.
A number of attempts have been made in the by to register slogans every bit trademarks. But these attempts have often been unsuccessful and registrations have been refused because the slogans in question were devoid of distinctive graphic symbol (distinctiveness is the main requirement to annals all categories of signs).
Indeed, average consumers are often not in the habit of making assumptions nearly the origin of products on the footing of slogans, as they consider them every bit just advertising messages and therefore merely informational, generic or laudatory.
For example, slogans such as "Proudly Made in the USA" (in connection with electric shavers) and "America's Freshest Ice Cream" (in relation to ice creams) were held unregistrable in the The states for being merely descriptive and so indistinguishable from other similar products.
When US multinational Best Buy tried to register the phrase "best buy" when written on price tags, an EU Court deemed it devoid of any distinctive graphic symbol and refused the registration. Similarly, when Citigroup tried to trademark the slogan "Live richly" the courtroom rejected it, as it was deemed that European consumers were perceive the phrase merely as promotional formula.
In order to overcome such objections, brand owners have to bear witness that the slogan they want to protect has acquired a "secondary meaning" on its own. A slogan is thought to have caused such meaning if the brand possessor can demonstrate that its use by another party would cause defoliation amid consumers as to the producer or provider of the goods or services. Famous examples of this category of slogans are KFC'southward "Finger Lickin' Good" and Nike's "Just Practice It".
Does 'Make America Groovy Again' fit the bill?
Despite successfully registering "Make American Great Again", Donald Trump may demand to accept on objections that his slogan is just descriptive and laudatory. Trademarks may be revoked even later registration, if judges or trademark offices subsequently hold they exercise not meet requirements for protection and should have never been registered.
He might besides exist unable to prove that "Make America Great Again" has acquired a secondary significant to move it beyond "descriptive" status. The slogan has been a mutual campaign catchphrase used in the past by several US politicians. Ronald Reagan first used it in his 1980 presidential campaign, and many people in the United states notwithstanding link it to his political era. Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, other candidates for the upcoming election in 2016, take also used it.
Whether or not Trump'due south legal movement is compliant with trademark law and despite his making sure he doesn't need farther coin to finance his cocky-funded campaign, information technology nevertheless seems an opportunistic way to get profits past using politics and to have economic advantages from his own supporters.
This does not come up as a big surprise. Donald Trump knows how to create and strengthen a make, as he has washed (and is still doing), spending lots of money licensing out his proper noun on products and services that include ties, perfumes, water and of form hotels.
But when information technology comes to politics, which entails asking people to vote for yous and then adopting policies in the pursuit of the public interest, it sounds odd and ethically dubious to mix the latter with profit-seeking.
Source: https://theconversation.com/how-donald-trump-trademarked-the-slogan-make-america-great-again-49070
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