In a dramatic Sunday morning hearing (conducted remotely via telephone), lawyers for TikTok and the Trump Administration battled over whether the government’s order banning TikTok from the Apple and Google app stores would take effect that night.

The Trump Administration has argued for months that TikTok is a threat to national security because its corporate owner, ByteDance, is a Chinese company. Most recently, the Commerce Department issued rules, which were to take effect on September 27 at 11:59pm, banning the app from U.S. app stores and prevented any further software updates. TikTok filed a lawsuit earlier this month challenging the Trump Administration’s actions. On September 23, it filed a motion for preliminary injunction, essentially asking the Court to stop the Commerce Department’s ban from taking effect.
Continue Reading The Courts Step in to Protect TikTok from the Trump Administration

As I frequently transparentmention in my articles, trademark law is a much more prevalent part of the average person’s life than they realize. We are surrounded by the trademarks of numerous companies every time that we step outside, or even when we look around our own homes. However, we would not generally expect for trademark law to be inserted into a presidential campaign. At least, not until Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring.

Since Donald Trump has coined the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” he has been quite diligent about protecting his brand. Trump’s army of trademark attorneys have been aggressively threatening companies such as Café Press and an anti-Trump interest group with cease and desist letters ordering that they cease using the mark “Make America Great Again.” Although this is a shock to many of us who are not accustomed to seeing trademark law inserted into the political sphere, it should not come as too much of a surprise given Mr. Trump’s involvement. Donald Trump‘s acute understanding of the power of branding has significantly contributed to his net worth that allegedly exceeds $8.7 billion dollars. So his diligent brand protection is hardly out of character.Continue Reading Does Trump Own “Make America Great Again?”