The end of the "Trump toilet"
AP February 14, 2017, 5:34 PM
SHANGHAI - There’s a Trump toilet, a Trump condom, a Trump pacemaker and even a Trump International Hotel among hundreds of trademarks in China that don’t belong to Donald Trump. But after a decade of grinding battle in China’s courts, the president was expected to get an unlikely win this week: the rights to his own name.
Trump’s late victory in the fight to wrest back one sliver of his brand, the trademark for building construction services, could signal a shift in fortune for the U.S. president’s intellectual property in China. At stake are 49 pending trademark applications - all made during his campaign - and 77 marks already registered in his name, most of which will come up for renewal during his term. The case also raises the possibility that the president could claw back control of more than 225 Trump-related marks in China that do not belong to him ...
“There can be no question that it is a terrible idea for Donald Trump to be accepting the registration of these valuable property rights from China while he’s a sitting president of the United States,” said Norman Eisen, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama. “It’s fair to conclude that this is an effort to influence Mr. Trump that is relatively inexpensive for the Chinese, potentially very valuable to him, but it could be very costly for the United States.”
Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, called the situation “highly improper.” Since foreign governments know Trump cares deeply about his family’s business, Painter said, “they will give him what he wants and they will expect stuff in return” ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/with-trumps-win-in-china-will-trump-toilets-get-flushed/
= new reply since forum marked as read
DURec for the article though
