New York Trademark Attorney Blog
Now that Melania Trump is to assume the role of First Lady of the United States on January 20, 2017, her trademark troubles may have just begun. Melania Trump has hired a law firm in Slovenia to stop the use of her name on numerous products without her consent. Similar to the laws of the United States, use of the name Melania Trump without Ms. Trump’s authorization for commercial purposes is a violation of the law in her native country. Since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, various products in Slovenia have commenced use of Melania Trump’s name such as shoes, underwear, candy, cakes, etc. In Slovenia, not only did these products use Melania Trump’s name, some also placed her image on the packaging. I wouldn’t be surprised if the United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) also starts to receive applications trying to take advantage of the recent fame of Melania Trump.
The soon to be First Lady, already owns several trademark registrations and one pending trademark application with the USPTO. There is a registration in the name MELANIA for watches and jewelry, a second registration for the mark MELANIA in international class 3 for various cosmetic products, and a third registration for MELANIA TRUMP for jewelry and cosmetic goods. The earliest filing date of the three applications was in 2009 and the latest trademark application was filed in August 2016.
As anticipated, there was also a trademark application filed for the mark MELANIA DIET, but not filed by Melania Trump. This application was filed on July 20, 2016 seeking to brand weight reduction services. On November 16, 2016 a refusal was issued by the USPTO. The refusal states that based on Trademark Act Section 2(c), 15 U.S.C. §1052(c) a name in a trademark would identify a living individual if the person bearing the name will be associated with the mark when used on the goods or services because the person is so well known that the purchasing public would reasonably assume a connection with the person and the goods or services. See our web page entitled, Trademarks That Falsely Suggest A Connection With Other Persons, where we discuss similar cases involving the famous model Twiggy, Beyonce’s famous infant Blu Ivy Carter and numerous applications trying to incorporate President Obama’s name such as The Obama Collection, Bronx Obama, and The Obama Collection.