• WTR investigates trademark filings related to 2024 US presidential race
• Little activity from candidates so far, while third-party marks spring up
• Republican candidate Nikki Haley appears to have biggest trademark-related issues, with potentially problematic registrations in China and US

US presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who is currently running in the Republican primary against Donald Trump, could face legal hurdles linked to registered trademarks relating to her name, campaign slogan and advocacy group, WTR can reveal.

The 2024 US presidential election is scheduled for 5 November 2024. The final race is expected to be between current US President Joe Biden on the Democratic Party ticket and one of three primary candidates on the Republican Party ticket (libertarian entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out earlier this week):

• former president Donald Trump, who holds a significant lead;
• Ron DeSantis; or
• Nikki Haley.

Anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer Robert F Kennedy Jr is also running as an independent candidate, polling at the highest levels for a third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992.

There is little doubt that the 2024 campaign – which could be the first presidential rematch since 1956 – is going to be a long, bitter one, with some candidates, and their respective campaign slogans, set to become household names globally.

As the campaign heats up, the US trademark register has begun to see related activity. However, to date, there has been limited activity from the candidates themselves.

Both Biden and Trump already own active, registered trademarks from previous campaigns (eg, Biden’s BIDEN PRESIDENT mark and Trump’s MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN registration). The current president’s campaign filed an additional trademark for BIDEN HARRIS in November 2023.

There appears to be no filing activity among the other Republican candidates, though. Neither has filed for their name or slogan (eg, ‘Our Great American Comeback Never Back Down’ for DeSantis or ‘Stand for America’ for Haley). The RFK Jr campaign does not appear to have filed any trademarks for its slogans, either (eg, ‘The Remedy Is Kennedy’) – although it is worth noting that Kennedy’s primary slogan, ‘Declare Your Independence’, is a registered trademark for companies including Boston Beer Corporation (in Class 32) and Beauty Malls of America (in Class 36).

As with past presidential elections, however, numerous third-party trademarks can be seen targeting the candidates. Unsurprisingly, most relate to leading candidates Biden and Trump. Trademarks filed in the past couple of years include BYE!den 2024, BUCK DOE BIDEN and PRIDE IN BIDEN. Those targeting Trump include applications for TRUMPED UP 2024, YES AMERICA! (NO TRUMP) and TRUMP 2024 SAVE AMERICA!. Some recent filings use both candidates names (eg, NO BIDEN / NO TRUMP AMERICA DESERVES BETTER and BIDEN MY TIME WAITING ON TRUMP).

As the current second-place candidate in the Republican primary, DeSantis also faces at least two US trademarks that use his name: DESANTISAN and WRONG DESANTIS.

Although no third-party marks appear to specifically target Haley at present, WTR has identified a registered trademark for her campaign slogan, ‘Stand for America’, which is also the name of the policy advocacy group that she founded in 2019. The trademark in question, STAND FOR AMERICA, was filed in 2009 and was renewed in April 2021. It is owned by Tev Law Group, the formal name of full service law firm Zegarelli Law Group, and covers Class 41 for online and email newsletters. The specimen used in the renewal was a 2009 LinkedIn post (republished in 2015) by the firm’s founder, Gregg Zegarelli.

When contacted by WTR, Zegarelli confirmed that the firm “does not have any association with the Haley campaign at this time”. The campaign “is using the US registered brand without permission”, he said, adding: “We are currently investigating the situation for appropriate action.”

When pressed what such action might involve, Zegarelli clarified: “[We are] preserving all options, legal rights, and claims.”

It is doubtful that Zegarelli’s registration could pose a significant threat to Haley’s use of the slogan, Potomac partner Julia Anne Matheson tells WTR. “First, having reviewed the specimens [filed as part of the renewal], I believe [that they] were accepted by the USPTO in error as they do not show ‘STAND FOR AMERICA’ as the name of a newsletter, but rather they show use of ‘THE GREAT MASQUERADE – STAND FOR AMERICA’, not the mark as standalone,” she explains. “I would argue that neither of the latter specimens actually support ongoing use of the mark as registered, nor demonstrate ongoing use – meaning that the registration is likely vulnerable to challenge on multiple grounds.”

“If the registrant were to decide to pursue a claim of infringement against Haley in the federal courts, it would open itself up to discovery, as well as a counterclaim for cancellation of the registration,” Matheson continues. “As part of the process of discovery, Haley would be able to dig into how often the newsletter was published, where it was published, its content, its readership, its advertising (if any), and its reach. For the registrant to prevail in a litigation against Haley, it would have to demonstrate not only priority and validity of its rights, but also likelihood of confusion of an appreciable number of consumers. If, as is likely the case, the publication was never regularly published and had an extremely narrow readership, the registrant cannot prevail. Even in the very unlikely chance it could demonstrate likelihood of confusion, it is hard to conceive of any measure of actual provable damages.”

With Haley polling in second place in New Hampshire, the next Republican primary voting location, the next few weeks could see a Trump versus Haley run-off. If that happens, the ‘Stand For America’ slogan could become more prevalent – and would raise the profile of any possible legal spat.

Such a dispute could have been avoided back in 2019 if Haley had sought registration when launching her advocacy group. But the issue may have already been considered. “I would not be surprised if [Haley] saw the other registration, looked into it and determined it was not a true commercial threat, and decided to move forward without registration based upon [a] willingness to accept the risk,” Matheson says.

Time will tell whether Zegarelli will take action, but this is not the only trademark-related issue that Haley’s campaign may need to be aware of.

WTR has identified four registered trademarks in China for NIKKI HALEY, all of which were filed in November 2018 – a month after Haley resigned as Trump’s UN Ambassador. The single-class registrations cover goods and services such as printed publications, clothing, handbags and jewellery.

These registrations demonstrate how trademark squatting in China “continues to be a problem”, Matheson says. (For its part, Trump’s legal entity DTTM Operations LLC owns seven registered DONALD TRUMP marks in China, and WTR has identified no registrations for JOE BIDEN or RON DESANTIS in China.)

For now, the impact of these marks for Haley should be minimal, Matheson admits. “I suspect the only negative implication of these registrations at this time relates to the export of merchandise,” she says. But the risk could grow. “Chinese registrants can record their registrations with the customs officials and make life hard for manufacturers and exporters. If [Haley] were to ultimately get into office and wanted to offer products bearing her namesake in China, she would seem to have strong grounds for pursuing invalidation/bad-faith proceedings against each. But the practical threat of these registrations seems to be far in the future.”

Trademark activity from any of the presidential candidates is unlikely in the coming weeks and months – partly because the major backlog that the USPTO is facing means that any filing would be unlikely to reach registration until after election day. “The real value in owning a trademark registration is for purposes of enforcement,” Matheson notes. “The USPTO is dealing with a significant backlog of applications these days, and it can take 10 months just to have an application assigned to an examining attorney for review. For a campaign, 10 months can be a lifetime. And enforcement can lead to bad PR – something campaigns obviously want to work to avoid. I suspect that is the rationale behind fewer filings this time during this election cycle.”

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• Source: https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/us-election-2024-presidential-candidate-nikki-haley-faces-trademark-issues-in-us-and-china