The Trump Organization has won a crunch trademark battle against a firm set up with a name similar to one its Scottish golf courses.
The business empire - currently run by the sons of President Donald Trump - has stopped a serial entrepreneur from registering Trump TV as a trademark.
It did so in intellectual property case which once again reveals how easy it is to set up a British enterprise whose name clones or nearly clones that of an established business.
The Trump Organization, through an affiliate, challenged the attempted registration of Trump TV by a UK limited company called Trump International.
This business is in no way related Trump International Golf Links in Menie or any other part of the real estate empire inherited and then grown by Donald Trump. It was set up a week before the 2016 presidential election by Michael Gleissner, a German-born serial entrepreneur with more than 1000 UK companies, most of which are understood not to be trading, who had already lost a bid to claim Apple trademarks.
Mr Gleissner’s Trump International argued that “Trump TV “ was not the same as Trump because it has three syllables instead of one.
However, Matthew Williams of the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), in a formal decision, rejected the bid, saying Trump International’s “indefensible position illustrates to me a flagrant degree of cynicism”. Mr Williams ordered Trump International to pay costs of more than £15,000 to DTTM Operations LLC, which is responsible for dozens of trademarks held by Mr Trump. Mr Williams said Mr Gleissner’s Trump International had shown “a disdainful disregard for the opposition costs of the other side”.
Mr Gleissner has fought numerous trade mark legal battles and, on paper at least, has a substantial business empire of its own. His Trump International last week filed basic accounts for a dormant company, suggesting it was not trading. He was ordered to pay more than £30,000 in costs to Apple last year.
Registrations of trademarks can and are challenged through the UKIPO.
However, there is nothing to prevent anyone registering a UK company name, even if it is nearly identical to a existing business, provided it is not already taken. A business which feels its name has been adopted can challenge after registration if it becomes aware of a clone. Last year much of the Scotch whisky industry found its names had been cloned on the UK Companies House after a mysterious Ukrainian-based businessman who styled himself the “the baron of spirits” registered 96 companies. Those were all dissolved after they were exposed by The Herald.
Earlier this year we revealed a whole range of clone or near clone companies had been registered mimicking major British football clubs with Rangers FC the most frequently used name.
Other businesses which face competition from clones include the national railway franchise ScotRail, which is registered at a flat in Edinburgh. which has been renamed ScotRail House.
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