六年法庭鏖战，小号手战胜大总统

虽然拥有特朗普大厦，特朗普高尔夫球场，还有特朗普签名收藏款商品，特朗普总统也没能夺走移动应用iTrump的名字 。

因为iPhone应用iTrump属于工程师汤姆·沙尔菲尔德。沙尔菲尔德今年40岁，业余时间爱好音乐，设计这款应用是为了教人们吹小号。经过与现任美国总统唐纳德·特朗普长达六年的诉讼鏖战，本月他终于赢得了iTrump的商标所有权。而且，沙尔菲尔德并未得到任何律师相助，更显得难能可贵。

法律界专业人士表示，也难怪特朗普会发动夺名大战，怒吼着要夺回“”唐纳德·特朗普”。毕竟，特朗普的家族企业占据了各种冠名，从房产、伏特加、高尔夫球场到航空公司，再到服装和牛排，应有尽有。早在开始竞选总统以前，特朗普大亨就曾起诉，禁止一些初创公司使用他的姓名。近来特朗普家族已将其姓氏品牌推广到世界各地。

“靠自辩几乎不可能赢，获胜机会实在太小，”没有参与这起案件的纽约律师哈雷·列文评价沙尔菲尔德，“就算你很聪明，可能一些问题上可能是正确的，但如果不懂法律程序，几乎从一开始就注定失败。”

沙尔菲尔德称，特朗普的律师们“可能没想到我能一步步走下来。但我们所有的诉讼请求都得到了支持，并且推翻了各项指控。”

iTrump案里特朗普代表律师詹姆斯·温伯格拒绝置评。

“特氟龙特朗普”

这还不算完，特朗普可能还有别的麻烦。专攻商标权的纽约律师梅根·班宁根指出，随着特朗普入主白宫，全球影响力扩大，会有更多人发掘他姓氏的商机，他的律师会面临更多挑战。美国专利与商标局官方网站上已列出几十项含有特朗普姓氏的商标申请，比如Trumpbusters、Trump You，甚至以耐腐蚀产品商标特氟龙与特朗普姓氏结合的Teflon Trump，还有特朗普同姓的Trump。这些商标的注册企业和个人都与特朗普本人无关。

“最终的问题是，消费者会不会弄混？”班宁根说。

沙尔菲尔德在麻省理工学院上大学时参加过爵士乐团。虽然他在旧金山成立的公司Spoonjack LLC只有自己一个人，但已经开发了iTrump和教吹长号的应用iBone。他将吹长号视为毕生爱好，所以希望在iPhone上设计一款直观实用的乐器模拟工具。

沙尔菲尔德希望给音乐应用起一些抢眼的名字。2010年12月，他递交了iTrump的商标注册申请，现在这款应用在苹果的电子商店iTunes Store上售价2.99美元。应用里有乐器画面和各种音符按钮，用户可以通过点按屏幕“吹奏”出旋律，既能独奏也能配合伴奏。

一个月后，沙尔菲尔德意外收到特朗普的律师信，信中要求他立即给应用改名字。律师声称，沙尔菲尔德的应用名称有损于“闻名遐迩”的特朗普商标，影响了“特朗普先生”通过著书和多年来参加真人秀《学徒》“树立的商誉和声名”。

沙尔菲尔德一口回绝，特朗普及其家族企业随后告到了商标局的评审委员会。沙尔菲尔德拒不退让，他说特朗普的律师“彻底搞错了，trump这个词原本就有其他的意思。”他竭力证明自己的应用与特朗普毫无关系，不会引起消费者困惑。

地方图书馆

沙尔菲尔德花了几个月时间在网上学习商标案件的司法程序，还去当地的法律图书馆研究。他阅读商标法的书籍，以及美国政府网站上公布的相关说明。为了递交的法律文书符合标准格式，他还查阅了之前的相关文件。

“我只是努力尊重法律程序，”沙尔菲尔德表示，“我就想得到公正对待。”

沙尔菲尔德说，期间特朗普经常罔顾他查阅相关文件的请求，要么就扔来一大堆文件记录。特朗普的律师给他发去长达几千页的文件，导致他淹没在海量文书里。

“他们想尽办法回避提供信息，只想浪费我的时间，干扰我做事。”沙尔菲尔德说。

在美国，商标的目的是帮助消费者筛选产品，识别品牌名称。质疑商标合法性的一种方法是，展示商标用词的普遍用法。沙尔菲尔德告诉特朗普的律师，美国权威词典韦氏词典显示，trump可同时代指小号，还说《圣经》里也有相同用法。

特朗普和你法庭上见

沙尔菲尔德指出，他的应用专注于音乐教育，和特朗普的业务毫无关系。而且，他通过证据指出特朗普使用相关商标的方式也并非如声称一样。他赢得了第一回合的胜利。2013年，专利与商标局公布裁定，要求特朗普撤回对iTrump商标的指控。

沙尔菲尔德趁胜追击，最终大获全胜。专利与商标局取消了部分特朗普的商标注册，迫使他撤回另一项起诉。上周专利与商标局做出最后裁定，这场漫长的官司终于划上了句号。

法庭抗争多年，沙尔菲尔德也付出不小代价。他表示没能按之前想法推广应用，现在他可以全心全意扑在应用上了。

“有的用户用我的应用消遣，也有用户当工具用。现在还卖着呢。”沙尔菲尔德说。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审稿：夏林

The owner of Trump Tower, Trump Golf Links, and The Donald J. Trump Signature Collection can’t claim this one as his own: iTrump.

That’s because the trademark resides with a 40-year-old-engineer and amateur musician who created an iPhone app designed to teach people how to play the trumpet. This month, Tom Scharfeld prevailed in his grueling six-year legal fight against Donald Trump. And Scharfeld’s triumph is even more impressive because he succeeded without a lawyer.

Legal experts say it’s no surprise that Trump waged a fierce campaign to capture a name that he said screams DONALD TRUMP. After all, The Trump Organization has affixed the moniker to everything from real estate, vodka and golf courses to an airline, clothing and steaks. Long before Trump embarked on his run for the White House, the tycoon had sued to block upstarts from using the name, and he and his family have recently expanded their marks around the world.

“When you are representing yourself, it is almost impossible to win, so coming out a winner is one of the great long shots," said Harley Lewin, a New York lawyer not involved in the case. “Even if you are bright and perhaps right on the issues, the lack of knowledge of litigation procedure almost dooms you from the start."

Trump’s lawyers "didn’t seem to respect that I could do this," Scharfeld said. “We won all the claims and defeated those against us.”

James Weinberger, the lawyer for Trump in the iTrump case, declined to comment.

‘Teflon Trump’

The president may face other setbacks. By capturing the White House and boosting his global footprint, more people will be tempted to trade on the Trump name, which will spur more challenges by his lawyers, said Megan Bannigan, a New York trademark attorney. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s website already lists scores of applications from non-Trump affiliated businesses and individuals for marks bearing the Trump name,

"The test ultimately comes down to, are consumers going to get confused?" Bannigan said.

Scharfeld, who played in jazz ensembles while in college at MIT, is the founder of San Francisco-based Spoonjack LLC, a one-person firm that developed iTrump and iBone, which teaches the trombone. A lifelong trombone player, he wanted to design an intuitive and playable simulation of the instruments for the iPhone.

And he wanted the music apps to have catchy names. In December 2010, he filed to register the iTrump mark. The apps, which are available in the iTunes Store for $2.99, feature a picture of the instruments and keys to play various notes, either solo or along with recorded music.

About a month later, he was stunned to receive a letter from Trump’s lawyers demanding that he immediately rename his product. They said his use of the name diluted the quality of “the famous” Trump mark and tarnished “the goodwill and reputation that Mr. Trump has built over the years” from his books and reality television show, “The Apprentice.”

Scharfeld refused, and Trump and the Trump Organization challenged his mark before the trademark board. Scharfeld dug in because he said Trump’s lawyers were “100 percent wrong -- the word trump has other meanings." He pushed hard to prove that his trumpet application had nothing to do with Trump and wouldn’t cause confusion.

Local Library

Scharfeld spent months researching the trademark process online and at a local law library. He read books about trademark law and a manual on the government’s website. He looked at old filings to be able to file documents in the correct style.

"I was just trying to respect the process," Scharfeld said. "I just wanted to be treated fairly."

At times, Trump evaded Scharfeld’s demands for documents while at other instances Trump inundated him with records, he said. Trump’s lawyers sent him thousands of pages of documents, burying him in paperwork.

“They wanted to provide as little information as they could,” he said. “They just wanted to waste my time and disrupt my business.”

U.S. trademarks are designed to help consumers sift through product offerings and recognize brand names. One way to challenge the validity of a trademark is to show a word’s common usage. Scharfeld told Trump’s lawyers that Merriam-Webster’s lists “trump” as a substitute for trumpet and mentions it was used as such in the Bible.

Donald Trump Will See You in Court

Scharfeld noted that his app, unlike Trump’s businesses, focused on music education. And he sought to show that Trump wasn’t using trademarks relevant to the fight in the way he claimed or at all. He prevailed in an early round, when the trademark office issued a ruling in 2013 that prompted Trump to drop his opposition to the iTrump mark.

Scharfeld also went on the attack, eventually winning rulings that canceled some of Trump’s trademark registrations and forced him to withdraw another. The latest decision came last week, essentially ending the legal battle.

The fight has taken its toll. Scharfeld said he’s been unable to market the app in the way he wanted, but now he can focus.

“I have people who use it for fun, and I have people who use it as a tool,” he said. “They’re still selling.”