Random Jackass Attempts To Trademark 'Mayor Of Mar-A-Lago' In The Most Hilarious Way

from the not-how-it-works dept

For years now, I have railed on the USPTO for its overly permissive posture when it comes to granting trademarks. The whole thing is far too easy, with far too little concern shown by examiners as to how distinct or useful proposed marks actually are. All of that being said, there are still some hoops you have to jump through to get a trademark. And there are some rules governing how to get through those hoops.

It appears someone needs to give Natale Passaro some lessons in how trademarks work, then. See, Passaro recently filed for a trademark on the term "Mayor of Mar-A-Lago." The proposed classes for the mark are to be for "shirts" and "consulting services". Part of the application requirements, however, is documentation on "specimen of use." This is basically the USPTO asking the applicant to show evidence of the mark's current or proposed use.

A specimen of use is a real-world example of how the mark is being used on goods and/or services. A real-world example means that it is an actual object that bears the mark, not just a photo or drawing of the mark. For goods, a person can submit tags, instruction manuals, containers, labels, or packaging materials.

What the Passaro submitted for his specimen, um, doesn't cut it.

Now, I truly wish that it was Donald Trump's hand that scrawled the phrase over a picture of a building at the club and a cartoon depiction of himself, because that makes all of this funnier. Unfortunately, it appears that this application came instead from someone just trying to cash in on the club and former President. That this initially confused a bunch of people, including me, is also a pretty good argument against any approval for this trademark.

But, again, that isn't how this works when it comes to the specimen of use. The USPTO is not going to take some scribbles of a proposed... I don't know, logo? That simply doesn't work for a specimen of use, it isn't in any way the behavior of a professional organization, and it calls into question just how serious this trademark application is if this really is the best Passaro can do on a trademark application. Given that this all also seems to be some strange attempt to get Mar-A-Lago incorporated as its own township and out of the jurisdiction of Palm Beach for... reasons, this all probably doesn't bode well for the success on that effort, either.

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Filed Under: donald trump, mar a lago, mayor of mar a lago, natale passaro, trademark, use in commerce, uspto