Ask HN: Does Trump presidency limit trademark of his name?

  • You have three options:

    1) Hire an actual lawyer. 2) Don't do this. 3) Do this, but take the risk of doing it without legal advice.

    Note that I did not include a fourth option: "Get adequate legal advice about a complicated legal issue from a message board." I did not include it because it's not a real thing.

  • Talk to a lawyer. Although there are probably some lawyers on HN, I'm not one of them, and it would be difficult if not impossible to verify the credentials of anybody who claimed to be one.

    The US government generally does not claim copyright on its works. However, the Trump name is more likely to be tied up in trademark law than copyright law, and this muddies the waters considerably. It works to your advantage in some ways, but against you in others. Be careful.