John Rizvi - Can Trump Sue A Trump Fan Over Burgers?

A Texas restaurant owner built his business around support for Donald Trump, now the Trump Organization is suing him over the name. The case is raising bigger questions about trademarks, political branding, and whether public figures should profit from their names while in office.

Patent attorney and law professor John Rizvi joins the program to break down the lawsuit and whether a political superfan has the right to use the president’s name for business.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome back to the Lawrence Larson Show. It's a Tuesday, and a diehard Trump fan built his entire business around the president's name. And now Donald Trump or his organization are suing him for that. Is it wrong for sitting presidents to profit from their own name? I thought we'd talk about it with Professor John Rizby, who is a board-certified patent attorney, adjunct professor of law, and the author of two books on patents, including Escaping the Gray, which I'm going to need an explanation on that. Professor Rizvey, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yeah, thank you. It's always a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

You know, it's funny I've told people, I don't I don't really have any copyrights or patents or things like that, but I've I've told people I'm constantly, you know, amazed by the people who let their uh their names go. Things like L Escalator and Kleenex and Vaseline, which all used to be recognized, you know, uh either uh they were names that belonged to somebody, and then the people who owned them didn't guard them. It seems Donald Trump does guard his name and doesn't take lightly when somebody opens up a uh a Trump cafe that has a Trump grill and makes the MAG a burger. Uh can you help my audience understand what's going on there?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yes, so uh under trademark law, there's a duty that trademark owners have to police their marks to make sure people are not infringing. And as you mentioned with those examples, when companies fail to police their marks and uh others start using it either in a generic term or in this case start using the brand uh for products, that dilutes the strength of the brand and makes it harder in the future for uh for Trump and his uh organization to stop infringement. So they're they're doing what the law requires them to do. And it's tough in this case because this happens to be a super fan that that really is uh uh uh a a huge Trump supporter. So uh it's one of these tough positions that that Trump and his organization is under, is that they have to enforce something that they may not really uh want to, but if they don't enforce it, uh then that weakens a trademark against others. And that's how you know if you let one go, then the next one uh uh might not be a Trump fan. And what if they end up using the brand in ways that the organization does not endorse or or like?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

So that's and Professor, that's the thing I wanted to ask you about is is there a way that somebody who owns a a trademark name or likeness uh could could let it go for the super fan and and yet still be seen as as as strongly defending uh their brand? Is there any way to do that and it say guy give the guy a a one-off?

SPEAKER_00 2:50

So, well, there are licenses under trademark law. So you could you could license somebody and say, you know what, yes, there's others using it, uh, my brand, but they have permission. Uh but trademark law, in addition to uh uh providing permission, it only protects your brand if you take an active role in upholding the quality and you have standards, and there's a lot of duties put on a trademark holder. You can't just give somebody permission and not get into the weeds of how they're they're using their the brand. So uh the Trump organization may not have wanted to be in uh this Texas burger restaurants business to that extent. So if they gave them permission, that's fine. Then they have to come in, uh, make sure that there's a consistent quality, have certain standards, have uh basically running a side organization to give them permission. I think the easier route was to say, uh, no, we're not going to permit this. Uh you didn't seek permission, and even if you did, uh in this case, there's if if if Donald Trump and his organization was not in this business at all, it would be different. But they have Trump Grill trademark. They have Trump Cafe, Trump Pizza, Trump Suites. Uh uh Donald Trump has a a steak uh branded with his name. There's there's other it's not as if they're not in the food service uh industry already. Trump Tower in New York has has uh several brands that are that are related to the the food service industries. So there is a a direct conflict. Um there's also the concern of false endorsement because uh if the Trump or uh Donald Trump or his organization did not endorse this brand, then uh then the that's the public may wrongfully see that it is endorsed or somehow affiliated with Trump's organization. And if something right now this person may be a super fan, but things can happen in this restaurant in the business that could be uh disastrous from a PR standpoint, and uh you don't want that associated uh with Trump and his branding. He's putting a lot of money, a lot of effort into branding, and in fact there is that's part of what your uh had asked about is is there an issue there where you have a sitting president filing trademarks uh and conducting business as well?

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Is there any problem with that?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So uh well clearly there's a a political problem, right? Like there's this is not something that reflects well on uh I believe on the presidency. If you have uh while somebody is a sitting president, well they have uh ongoing businesses that are not you know, if it was only using the Trump brand, it would be different. But some of the later uh re more recent trademarks are things like America 250, for example, which is uh not not that Trump's name is not even in there, and that becomes more problematic because now uh the question becomes is first of all, is it deceptively misdescriptive? Is it is are consumers going to think it's somehow uh associated with uh a US government entity? Um there's also a trademark for Donald J. Trump International Airport, and that's the concern there is that currently there is no Donald J. Trump International Airport. So uh right now it's an intent-to-use application.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Uh, but it's that's the one in West Palm Beach.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Correct. But it's it's currently still uh West Palm Beach International Airport, the official name. It's not it hasn't been renamed. There's been some efforts to do so, but unless it is renamed, that trademark is deceptively misdescriptive. And and the test, the legal standard is easy. Is uh basically does a trademark describe something uh that's inaccurate or misdescribes something? And then the second part is are consumers likely to believe uh that statement? And I think uh in this case it it clearly meets the deceptively misdescriptive if uh if that trademark is granted today. So luckily it's an intent to use, and it was filed, I think, in foresight, and perhaps hope that it's uh at one point it would not be misdescriptive and the airport would be renamed. But that hasn't happened yet.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

No, and in fact, I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of things named after President Trump before it's all uh over and done with, but I'd prefer to see it happen after he leaves office. I mean, I have to admit I have a dog in the fight professor, uh, because I voted for Trump three different times. Um he won two times. I'd actually argue he might have won three times, but then I get into big arguments with people about being an election denier. That is Professor John Rizke. He is a board-certified patent attorney, adjunct professor of law, and the author of two books on patents, including Escaping the Gray. Professor, thanks so very much. I appreciate the time. Try to get your calls at 866-ALRS. That's 866-439-5277. Send your emails to talk at LarsLarson.com. This segment of the show brought to you by Lean. Everybody is talking about weight loss. You need to go to takelean.com and use promo code Lars. It'll save you 20%. That's takelean.com and promo code Lars. And you're listening to the Lars Larson show. So check out my feed on Instagram.