Late this evening CNN/Money is reporting that The Trump Organization has won an important legal victory in China – control over an important trademark:
China legal experts say they think Trump’s political ascendancy most likely played a role in the trademark decision.
“I’ve got clients who have fought these same cases time and time again without success. For this rapid turn of events, it does seem to be more than just a coincidence,” said Dan Plane, a China intellectual property expert in Hong Kong. “What’s striking about the Trump decision is the timing. I think it’s reasonable to assume that politics played a part — without Trump even necessarily asking for it.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington told CNN that the case was handled in compliance with China’s trademark law.
I realize that China claims they followed their normal procedures, including a three month waiting period for competing claims to the trademark. But it’s impossible to forget two facts:
- Trump has not, as I understand it, severed himself from The Trump Organization. Most importantly, and once again as I understand it, he is the financial beneficiary. If The Trump Organization has won control of a value trademark in China, that benefits Trump.
- The Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which reads
No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.
Taken together, this may possibly be interpreted as putting Trump in legal peril. I have no idea what the punishment might be, but as it may leave Trump with yet more mud on him, it makes it worth speculating on the motivations of the Chinese – if we accept this was an act of malicious aforethought. I think we can at least consider this is a reasonable assertion because the Chinese government, like most governments, has a strong preference for predictable behavior by its peers in other countries. Trump appears to be a random motion machine – it’s not a question of whether he’ll choose between any of five closely related options, but instead whether he’ll choose the forbidden option, such as tossing a nuke at an offshore island.
Or bragging about his electoral victory one more time.
Indeed, we could even consider this a gift from the Chinese, since they are giving us yet another reason to get rid of him, a good sound reason, grounded in the Constitution. That would be the optimistic interpretation.
The pessimistic interpretation? That we’ve officially arrived at banana-republic status. How’s that, you say? Because now we’re a country that’s being batted back and forth by China and … Russia. Think about it. Russia, who is now widely acknowledged to have meddled, at Trump’s invitation, in the last Presidential election. Hard-ass Clinton would have pushed Russia to get out of the Crimea, would have continued to punish them through low fossil fuel prices – she’s smart, knowledgeable, hard driving, and experienced. Russia didn’t want that.
So they arranged for Trump to win, against all odds. This isn’t even controversial.
But China and Russia are rivals. They’ve been rivals for centuries. Even when it was the Soviet Union and Red China, they were rivals. Both have large amounts of national pride.
And I don’t think it’s hard to postulate that China doesn’t like the idea of a United States of America controlled – or at least strongly influenced – by Russia’s Putin. And then Trump’s repudiation of the One China policy shook them up, and while his craven back-tracking may have salved their wounds, the lesson was learned. Trump may hurt China.
And how to spike the gun? Well, supposedly the United States is a nation of laws. So … dump a bunch of money on him and see what happens. They can’t be sure – I kinda doubt it, in fact – that the GOP will start impeachment proceedings based on a violation of the Constitution, but it’s worth a shot, especially if Trump has a legitimate claim on the trademark in question. But they may see this as a good shot, since he’s looking fairly weak right now.
But I’m not entirely comfortable being a shuttlecock in this badminton match.
