Trump family company files for trademark rights to any airport that uses the president’s name

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump family company has filed for a trademark to use the president’s name at airports but says it doesn’t plan to charge — at least for a proposed renaming of one near his home in Florida.

The Trump Organization’s applications with the federal Trademark Office seek exclusive rights to use the president’s name on airports and dozens of related items located there, from buses carrying passengers to umbrellas and suitcases to flight suits. These requests come amid controversy in Florida over a state bill to name Palm Beach Airport after Trump and a dispute over funding a tunnel between New York and New Jersey linked to proposals for both the airport and Dulles International Airport in Virginia to bear his name.

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The Trump Organization said the requests were due to the Florida bill and that it was not seeking any profit — just protection against “bad actors” given that the Trump name is “the most violated trademark in the world.”

“To be clear, the President and his family will receive no royalties, licensing fees, or financial compensation whatsoever from the proposed renaming of the airport,” the company said in a statement, referring to what is now called Palm Beach International Airport near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

The company did not respond when asked whether it would charge fees for use of the name at other airports in the future, or for merchandise listed for protection in filings.

Josh Gerben, the trademark attorney who disclosed the filings over the weekend, said the applications were the first of their kind he had ever seen.

“While presidents and government officials have landmarks named in their honor, never in U.S. history has the private company of a sitting president sought trademark rights prior to such a naming,” Gerben wrote in his blog. “These are completely unprecedented trademark filings.”

Another break with the past: Presidents usually have to wait years after leaving office for an airport to be named after them — or they die.

Bill Clinton had to wait 11 years, Ronald Reagan nine years. For Gerald Ford, it took 22 years. JFK was the quickest – just one month after his assassination.

If Trump gets his airport, it will join a long line of organizations, buildings and other public objects that have been renamed after him in recent months, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a road outside Mar-a-Lago named after President Donald Trump Boulevard, and a new class of battleships that have yet to be built.

Airport trademark applications filed by a family business unit called DTTM Operations with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are for the use of three names — President Donald J. Trump International Airport, Donald J. Trump International Airport, and DJT.

It was not possible to quickly confirm Trump’s company’s claim that it is the most violated trademark in the world.

Gucci has encountered tens of thousands of counterfeit items since the early 1970s when Trump started his real estate business in Manhattan. Prada has been active in suing companies for years, and Rolex has been fighting counterfeit watches by the millions.

The family launched a promotional campaign last year, putting Trump’s name on towers, golf resorts and residential projects in Dubai, India, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. The company also sells Trump-branded electric guitars, Bibles and sneakers, ventures that also fall under the DTTM unit.

In response to criticism that he and his family are profiting from the presidency, Trump said his company is owned by his children and that he has no day-to-day involvement in the company.