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Title: Ridiculously Thin Skinned Donald Trump Threatening Critics With Totally Bogus Trademark Infringement Lawsuit
Source:
TechDirt
URL Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2 ... ark-infringement-lawsuit.shtml
Published: Sep 24, 2015
Author: Mike Masnick
Post Date: 2015-09-25 19:55:19 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 5241
Comments: 30
So just last week, we wrote about the ridiculousness of Presidential candidate Ben Carson threatening a trademark (and copyright and publicity rights) lawsuit against people making Ben Carson (both pro- and anti-) clothing. And, now it appears that Donald Trump is doing the same ridiculous, censorious thing. Fresh off of threatening a completely bogus defamation lawsuit against a critical political organization, Alan Garten, one of Trump's lawyers, fired off a hilariously bogus threat letter to the website StopTrump.us. As you can probably guess, the operators of that site are not fans of Mr. Trump. And, of course, that's both completely allowed and encouraged in a democratic country with freedom of expression. Indeed, the Trump® trademark has even been declared "incontestable" by the US. Patent and Trademark Office pursuant to §1065 of the US. Trademark Act (15 U.S.C. § 1065). As such, your use of the Domain Name constitutes a violation of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), entitling Mr. Trump to recover (i) your profits, (ii) any damages sustained by Mr. Trump, and (iii) the costs of bringing an action against you (which may be tripled by the reviewing court). Loading Loading from the so-presidential dept
But not to Donald Trump or his censorious lawyers, apparently. They're claiming it's trademark infringement, as you can see in the ridiculous letter that was sent to the site. Garten throws out lots of scary sounding legal claims -- almost all of which are totally bullshit. ... it has come to our attention that you have registered the Domain Name STOPTRUMP.US and have made a deliberate attempt to sell T-shirts online using TRUMP and DONALD TRUMP brands without any authorization from Mr. Trump. Please be advised that the unauthorized use of this Domain Name infringes upon Mr. Trump's common law and statutory trademark rights in that the name Trump® is protected by US. Trademark Registration No. 3,526,411.
Scary, scary and completely bullshit. Law professor Eugene Volokh nicely dismantles Trump's trademark claims, pointing out that political criticism is clearly protected free speech and not covered by trademark. Even if it was, any such lawsuit would fail dreadfully. There's no likelihood of confusion here. There's no dilution (which "expressly exempts uses of a trademark for 'identifying and parodying, criticizing, or commenting upon the famous mark owner or the goods or services of the famous mark owner.'"). Volokh even leaves out the fact that the one registered trademark named only is for "Real estate services, namely, listing, leasing, financing, and managing commercial, residential, and hotel properties." Protesting Trump's political aspirations is none of that.
Your registration (and use) of the Domain Name also constitutes cyber-piracy in violation of the US. Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15. U.S.C. § 1125(d). Like the Lanham Act, under Anti-Cybersquatting Act, any person who, in bad faith, registers a domain name that is identical or confusingly similar to the trademark of another person can be held liable for damages -- up to $100,000 per domain. 15 U.S.C. § 1117(d).
The cybersquatting claim is also a complete joke. There are so many cases on the books these days saying it's fine to use a trademarked name for criticism, as it's regularly approved for so-called "sucks sites," and there's no way that StopTrump doesn't qualify.
So just this week alone, we've seen Trump and his lawyers make completely bogus threats using defamation law and trademark law to try to stifle political criticism. What's next? Will he ask the FCC to silence his critics? Yup, that too.
I'm curious if there's ever been a Presidential candidate so thin skinned and so willing to make baseless legal threats to stifle pretty ordinary critics?
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Dump Trump Trump the Chump Don the Moron Teflon Don
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