Back in the '70s or '80s, I vaguely remember a case involving Donald Trump. There was a small grocery store owned by a couple whose name was also Trump. The store was called “Trump’s” or “Trump’s Grocery.” The Donald claimed exclusive ownership of the name, so sued them. He claimed the public associated the name with him, so they would assume he was connected to the store. A dickish attitude if there ever was one. With the help of expensive lawyers, he won the case.
I can’t find any information about this. Was there an appeal? What became of the store, and the couple? Did they change the name to “Obama’s” and succeed beyond their wildest expectations?
Here is a Bloomberg listed for The Trump Group. Mr. Edmond Trump is listed as co-Founder,co-chairman, and President. Jules Trump is co-founder, Partner, and co-Chairman.
You can see why Trump was onto it, though. Trump trades off his name to a much greater extent than most businesses. (In his own assessment of his net worth, he assigns $3B to the name “Trump”.) He would naturally be more zealous about someone else confusing the public’s perception of that name than another business would be.
I don’t think so. The context there is completely different. He was just bolstering his claim that these people were trading off his name.