Donald Trump seeks protection in bizarre condom trademark battle

He will begin the New Year fighting for his political life, as he attempts to ramp up his campaign to return to the White House while fending off a slew of high-profile legal battles and investigations.

But for Donald Trump, 2023 also brings an altogether more intimate problem to overcome on this side of the Atlantic. The former US president’s firm is embroiled in a bizarre legal wrangle in Europe as it attempts to prevent the sale of condoms bearing his name.

While the media spotlight has been trained on the civil and criminal investigations into the Trump Organisation, and the US Department of Justice’s probe into the removal of government documents from Mr Trump’s time in office to his Florida estate, one of the 76 year-old’s obscure subsidiary companies has been waging a battle of its own.

For the past year, DTTM Operations LLC, a New York registered holding company responsible for Mr Trump’s intellectual property rights, has been trying to convince a little known EU entity to throw out an application for Trump-branded contraceptives. It has enlisted the expertise of a Swedish attorney to oppose the plans, arguing ordinary consumers in Europe may mistake them as products that have been approved by Mr Trump.

The dispute is focused on an application made by Frank Lindner, a German national, who is attempting to trademark the Trump name for a series of goods and services. As well as condoms, they include beer, sparkling wine and chocolates. Mr Lindner has also applied to have a series of existing DTTM trademarks covering food and drink services revoked, arguing there is no proof they are being genuinely used.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), an official EU agency based in Spain, has yet to rule on whether it will accept the application, having repeatedly extended the time limit for both parties to present their arguments and counter-arguments. But a tranche of legal correspondence lodged with EUIPO details the grounds of opposition set out so far by Mr Trump’s company.

In a seven-page letter to the EUIPO, Jesper Sellin, a Stockholm-based intellectual property attorney from the law firm, Potter Clarkson, said the global profile of Mr Trump had to be taken into account when assessing whether the new trademark application should stand.

In it, he states Mr Trump was someone “so globally well known” the public would “reasonably assume a connection with the contested application”. By way of illustrating Mr Trump’s international profile, his letter points out that he is “the only federal officeholder in American history to be impeached twice”.

Donald Trump's company is fighting attempts to trademark a condom bearing his name. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty

Mr Sellin also said there was plentiful evidence to show several existing Trump trademarks were being used. He has also submitted over 200 pages of exhibits to support his argument, including extracts from brochures detailing the facilities at Mr Trump’s Scottish golf resorts.

But responding on Mr Lindner’s behalf, Carmen Steiniger, a German patent attorney, dismissed the suggestion that people would become confused with who is behind the trademarked goods..

Writing to the EUIPO, she stated: “There is no likelihood of confusion between golf and hotel services on the one hand and condoms, alcoholic, and non-alcoholic beverages on the other. A hotel or a golf club is typically not a manufacturer of condoms or drinks.”