Zinger Key Points
- A trademark for Truth Social by Trump Media & Technology Group was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- The media company from Trump and SPAC taking it public have been the subject of investigations and setbacks.
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Former President Donald Trump is no stranger to legal troubles, with a past history of battles and current ones with the FBI and the White House. Trump’s SPAC deal to bring Trump Media & Technology Group with Digital World Acquisition Corp DWAC has also faced challenges and could now have a major one around the name of its key product.
What Happened: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has refused a trademark application for the term “Truth Social.”
The news was reported by trademark attorney Josh Gerben of Gerben Law on Twitter Inc TWTR Thursday (Aug. 25).
The USPTO refused to accept the trademark citing pre-existing trademarks that are similar in nature.
The filing from the USPTO cited existing trademarks for The Truth Network and Vero True Social. The filing also cited examples from Cisco Systems Inc CSCO, Meta Platforms Inc META and Salesforce.com Inc CRM-owned Slack over uses of certain marks.
“Marks are compared in their entireties for similarities in appearance, sound, connotation, and commercial impression,” the filing reads.
Trump now has six months to file a response and make a case against the refusal by the USPTO for the trademark on Truth Social.
Related Link: Donald Trump Is The Favorite To Win The 2024 Election If You Listen To Canadian Betting Markets
What’s Next: Along with facing trouble over the name of its social media platform, Truth Social could be facing some financial trouble. Reports from Fox Business Network and Charles Gasparino claimed Truth Social partner RightForge said it stopped making payments for web-hosting services months ago and is $1.6 million behind. Spokespersons for both RightForge and Truth Social would not deny the claims to Fox Business.
RightForge was named as the company to offer web hosting for Truth Social in October with a platform that is “safe from censorship” and “built for free speech and a free press.”
Truth Social saw app downloads spike after the raid of Mar-a-Lago by the FBI, Benzinga recently reported. The app went from outside the top 50 most downloaded social networking apps on the Apple Inc AAPL iOS app store to being the 15th most downloaded, peaking at the 10th most downloaded several days later.
Trump Media & Technology Group is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and by a federal grand jury ahead of its potential merger with Digital World Acquisition Corporation.
Truth Social is currently only available on Apple devices with pre-orders recently opened for Android devices.
Truth Social is one of the few social media platforms where Trump and several prominent conservative voices are welcomed after being banned from other platforms such as Twitter and Meta Platforms-owned Facebook.
Originally published on Aug. 25, 2022
Photo: Shutterstock
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