FACT CHECK: Did China give Ivanka Trump $250,000,000 in trademarks while her father was in office? The simple answer is NO. It is complete fake news.

by ReviewEquivalent1266

Over the past decade, Ivanka Trump has sought to protect more than 70 trademarks she owns through a company called Ivanka Trump Marks LLC. The marks primarily consist of her name “Ivanka Trump”, “Ivanka”, and “IT” for various clothing and household items. She did file a few non-Ivanka Trump marks including Gilded Cage, Lao Tong, and Belle Epoque but she seems to have abandoned those marks.

The way trademarks work is that the owner of the mark applies to the government and asked them to confirm they are the true owner of that trademark – aka brand name. Once a trademark is issued by a government the owner is able to enforce their ownership rights more effectively – often sanctions against those who use the marks illegally are more severe as well.

Here in the United States, Ivanka would have likely paid her lawyers to file and pay for the trademarks – around $250 each – she likely paid more than $20,000 to the USPTO to register her trademarks here in the US. Unfortunately, the protections offered by the trademark registration do not extend past our borders. While Ivanka still owns her brand in Canada, England, and China if she wants the benefits and protections offered by trademark registration in those countries she would need to repeat the filing and registration process in each country. The cost to register a trademark in China, for example, is around $10 each – Ivanka filed at least 34 marks in China at a cost of around $14,000. She did the same in Canada, Europe, and other countries.

At some point, a ‘journalist’ pointed out that the amount of time she was waiting for the trademarks to get approved in China seemed to be shorter once her father took office. If this is true and I have no way of knowing, it wouldn’t surprise me as China’s culture is one of providing advantages to powerful people. But claims that they gave her trademarks worth $250,000,000 is just plain silly. Ivanka already owned her marks – they merely recognized that she was the owner of those marks in China. Anyone can do this by paying $410. Ivanka PAID the Chinese government and possibly got them approved months earlier than she might otherwise have – providing ZERO financial benefit to her.