Chinese businesses scramble to use Ivanka Trump's name on their products
Ivanka Trump has never been more famous. As the daughter of the President of the United States, she is influential purely because of who she is - The New York Times called Ivanka “the most influential first daughter since Alice Roosevelt Longworth.”
Yes, controversy swirls around her fashion brand, but her name alone carries power, which is not being lost on businesses around the world.
In China in particular, there’s been a lot of interest in the power of Ivanka, where at least 65 people and companies have submitted applications to use her name as a trademark for their products, according to the South China Morning Post.
Ivanka’s popularity in China has soared since her visit to the country earlier this month, and now companies are scrambling to associate their products with the first daughter.
Applications have been submitted for products ranging from weight-loss aids and wallpaper to sanitary towels and alcohol.
One Beijing-based weight-loss company even filed 10 different requests to use ‘Ivanka’ on nutritional supplements and cosmetics, according to the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce.
What’s more, a further 40 applications have been made to use the Chinese version of Ivanka’s name too.
Chinese laws and regulations mean businesses are allowed to use foreign names (and their spellings in Chinese characters) as trademarks, but this has caused international problems in the past.
For years, a Chinese company produced shoes featuring the name and picture of US basketball player Michael Jordan. After a four year dispute, the court finally ruled that the shoe company must stop last December.
Even a company the size of Apple isn’t immune to the Chinese laws though - a small Chinese producer of leather handbags and wallets won the case and was granted permission to use Apple’s iPhone trademark.
President Trump himself has had problems in China since 2006 too, and it wasn’t until last year that he was finally granted the rights to use his namesake trademark on construction projects in the country.
Most of the applications to use Ivanka’s name are still being processed so it remains to be seen whether any of the companies will get the go-ahead to associate their products with the first daughter.
