The director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told lawmakers Wednesday that he filed to trademark President Trump’s Board of Peace because bad actors were taking advantage of its domain name.
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee grilled John Squires about why his patent office filed trademark applications for the Board of Peace, rather than a member of the board.
The patent office filed trademark applications for the name and logo of the Board of Peace, intended to prevent misuse, Mr. Squires told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet on Wednesday.
He said he filed the intent to use application in response to cyber squatters registering the domain name boardofpeace.org, created eight minutes into the president’s introductory speech in February.
Because the registration mirrored identity theft, the patent office acted as a custodian with a bona fide intent by filing the application. The director is statutorily responsible for advising the president on national and international intellectual property policy, Mr. Squires said.
Under federal trademark law, only the owner of a trademark may request registration of the trademark.
“You personally filed the trademark applications, allowing [the patent office] to stand in as a straw trademark holder, to cover up for this slush fund that appears to put both billions of U.S. taxpayer funds and billions in payments from foreign governments into the pocket of the chairman for life, Donald Trump,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat.
“We are not the owner. It will be transferred to the entity once it’s formed,” Mr. Squires countered.
The Board of Peace was first proposed in September to reconstruct the Gaza Strip with a broader goal of addressing other foreign conflicts.
It costs $350 to file a trademark. Mr. Squires filed a petition on Jan. 21 to waive that fee for the Board of Peace, which was approved by his office the next day. Mr. Squires is listed as the owner on the petition, Mr. Raskin said.
This underscores the “bizarre conflict of interest you’re in now, acting both as a representative of the Board of Peace and also the trademark office that’s going to pass upon the petition,” Mr. Raskin said.
Mr. Squires argued that the waiver was sought in his office’s custodial power.
By filing a trademark application, “you’re admitting that the Board of Peace is not a legitimate governmental body, but rather a commercial enterprise set up by President Trump,” Mr. Raskin said.
He said he’s not just troubled that Mr. Squires may be violating the basic trademark rules, but that he may be acting as a political operative for the president.
