Trump Campaign Wants To Trademark 'Keep America Great'
from the will-be-watched-closely dept
It appears that Donald Trump -- or, more specifically, whatever remains of the organization that was his Presidential campaign -- has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO, which Donald Trump now controls, as President) to give the campaign a trademark on the phrase "Keep America Great!" for use on bumper stickers, signs, placards, pamphlets, clothing, campaign buttons and more. One imagines that they are already gearing up for the expected campaign slogan of the 2020 re-election campaign. Of course, as Paul Levy at Public Citizen points out, someone else had already tried to trademark that phrase last year, and had it rejected by the PTO on the (correct) grounds that a "slogan" can't be taken out of the public domain and trademarked. Indeed, the rejection letter notes many examples of the slogan already in widespread use, recognizing that giving one guy the trademark on it wouldn't make any sense.
And therein lies the big question: now that the PTO is technically controlled by Trump, will it suddenly now allow the Trump campaign to register that very same trademark that it rejected from someone else two months ago? Or will it (properly) reject it on the same grounds that the phrase is already in widespread use and a political campaign can't just snatch it from public use and claim it as its own? One hopes that the PTO will do the right thing and reject this trademark application as well. Many of us will be watching.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: donald trump, keep america great, trademark, trump campaign, uspto
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
The Newsroom "America is not the greatest country in the world anymore" 2012 TV series
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
A girl can dream.
Hmm... can I trademark that for use on stickers, buttons, etc.?
Meanwhile, isn't as dodgy as hell, and therefore illegal, to milk public office like that? He's like Scrooge McDuck already with wealth, how much more does Trump need?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Apparently, this is what makes america great. The question is, for whom and the answer is quite obvious.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
this is what you finally decided to write up?
ive read techdirt for a long time and agreed with many of the articles but now im done with this cucked website.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Then you SHOULD know this is the EXACT thing TD covers.
"Out of all the tech dirt to come out during the election that techdirt.com didnt cover."
Like what? Citation needed.
Tell us oh cranky one... What would you like to see more or less of?
Done be shy bruh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tinkle Tinkle Little Czar
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Leave TD for greener grass
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
/sarc
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
"... but now im done with this cucked website."
TD and cucumbers... what a combo! Make cucumbers great again!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
That's the plan
Divide and conquer — yes we can
Slap 'em with labels if they disagree
Keep the nation divided, pretend that it's free
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ahhh Trump - the fuckstick just took office and I've been laughing like hell every single day. I haven't had this much to laugh about since Bush II. I'm not going to be able to take much more of this - he's just so patently stupid, that the jokes write themselves.
That he'd use a phrase from The Purge: Election year is beyond priceless:
http://mashable.com/2017/01/18/the-purge-trump-2020/#TukY1UEFQmqK
Oh Trump, you big twatwaffle, you - "I'm laughing at the superior intellect." - James Kirk
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
the word lead
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Well, the electoral college did, anyway.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Ba dum tsss!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2ViNJFZC8
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: laughing like hell
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
#KAGA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
#kag
Hmmm....Keep America Great would be #kag for short.
Urban dictionary offers these few definitions of kag that I found completely appropriate:
kag
To trip someone quickly and make them fall to the ground. To sweep the leg. Possibly used exclusively in a ghetto in West Alabama.
Trying to register something that was already denied kagged that dude up!
or....even better:
Kag
A disgusting being; rude and hated; found disturbing and ugly; hated and unwanted; considered socially awkward.
The orange, small-handed man was considered a kag to all the other children.
Maybe the PTO should reconsider just because it would be fucking funny as hell?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Great Again?
If phrase like this a "trademark-able", then doesn't that imply that Donald used Reagan's material, presumably without permission?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Great Again?
Trademarks can lapse without becoming generic, and somebody else can buy a lapsed trademark. Marvel Comics, for example, launched several superheroes in the 1960's who had the same name as superheroes who had previously been published by now-defunct competitors, the most famous of which are probably Captain Marvel and Daredevil.
That said, though, I'm pretty skeptical that "keep America great" can be trademarked. Then again, McDonald's has a trademark on "Smile" and Microsoft has a trademark on "Windows", so obviously the law doesn't always line up with my personal opinion on what is and isn't a generic term.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why bother?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why bother?
"Keep America Great: Stop Trump from revoking/changing X, Y, and Z!"
Is that so hard to imagine?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Phrase
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
He already gagged the environmental agencies to prevent them from releasing facts that go against his climate change denial so... Yep.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
pre-emptive sloganeering
Was not Mr Trump's campaign slogan to "Make America Great Again"?
Keeping it great, and making it great again presuppose contradictory propositions.
"Make X great Again" presupposes that X is no longer great, and needs to be made great again.
"Keep X great", on the contrary, presupposes that X is currently great.
It is a retort to "Make X great again".
Mr Trump's campaign cannot coherently lay claim to a slogan that rejects the foundation of their own primary slogan.
How they would use such a claim, were it granted, to pre-empt its use by their critics, is pretty obvious.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: pre-emptive sloganeering
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: pre-emptive sloganeering
Given that he apparently trademarked "Make America Great Again" shortly after Obama's (second?) election victory, the idea that this is preparatory for the 2020 campaign is not at all implausible, and it would make perfect sense in that context.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]