After a six-year legal battle, Donald Trump has lost a trademark fight with Tom Scharfeld, a music teacher who acted as his own lawyer to protect the name of his app “iTrump,” which he created to teach his students how to play the trumpet.
The music teacher had registered iTrump and iBone as trademarks and sold both apps on iTunes for $2.99 each in 2010. About a month after registering his apps, he received a legal letter from Donald Trump’s lawyers, saying that he must cease and desist from using the Trump name because the app would dilute Trump’s brand.
In the case, he showed that according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “trump” is a common substitute for trumpet. In turn, Donald Trump’s brand has nothing to do with music.
Finally, Trump’s lawyers have “voluntarily withdrawn” from the case this month in 2017.
