Supreme Court to hear Trump’s too-small trademark case

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WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear a case in which a man tried to trademark a phrase mocking former President Donald Trump as too petty.

The Justice Department is backing President Joe Bidens once and possible future rival in urging a court to reject a trademark for a suggestive Trump phrase that’s too small for a Californian to wear on T-shirts.

The case will be argued in the fall, one of two disputes on the upcoming court agenda involving Trump or one of his businesses. Government officials say the phrase Trump is too small can still be used, just not trademarked because Trump did not consent to its use. But a federal appeals court said the refusal to register the trademark violated free speech rights.

The high court has considered a raft of Trump-related cases in recent years. The justices dealt with cases related to Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2000 election and his efforts to shield his tax records from Congress and keep other tax records from prosecutors. New York, among other things.

If the justices are tired of Trump-related cases, however, they are not letting on. Just last month, the high court agreed to hear another Trump-related case stemming from disputes over what is the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee sued over the Trump administration’s refusal to release information about the Trump Organizations’ lease of the hotel.

The latest case is unusual in that it has the Biden administration on Trumps side. The administration is defending the decision of government officials to reject the trademark request from Steve Elster, who tried to register the Trump too small phrase.

The phrase is a reference to a memorable exchange Trump had during the 2016 presidential campaign with Florida senator and GOP presidential rival Marco Rubio.

Rubio started the verbal jousting when he told supporters at a rally that Trump always calls him little Marco but that the Trump who says he is 6-feet-3-inches tall has disproportionately small hands. Did you see his hands? … And you know what they say about men with small hands, said Rubio. You can’t trust them.

Trump then brought up the comment in a televised debate on March 3, 2016.

Look at those hands. Do they have small hands? And he refers to my hands if they are small, they should be small. I guarantee you no problem. I guarantee you, he said.

Federal law states that a trademark request must be denied if it involves a name, image or signature that identifies a specific living individual unless the person has given written consent. But Elster said the refusal to register a political slogan criticizing Trump without the Trumps’ permission violates the First Amendments Free Speech clause. Federal law, the Elsters’ lawyers say, makes it nearly impossible to register a mark that expresses an opinion about a public figure.

We look forward to defending the right to convey key political messages in trademarks, Elsters attorney Jon Taylor wrote in an email. The attempt by governments to burden political speech by giving public figures a monopoly on speaking about them in the marketplace is indefensible.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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