Last week, former President Donald Trump announced the launch of his new social media platform, months after his infamous Twitter account was banned for inciting a deadly failed insurrection against the United States Capitol.
The site, which is expected to fully launch later next year, is ironically named TRUTH Social, and has already been fraught with hacks and accusations of violating the terms of service for its open source code provider. It falls under the umbrella of the new Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which plans to expand to streaming services as well.
Now, Mother Jones reports that Holly Collins—an intellectual property lawyer—applied to trademark a number of terms related to Trump's latest venture, along with logos and insignias for TRUTH Social.
Among the terms is "truthing," as well as "Retruth" and "post a truth," indicating that "truth" will be the Twitter equivalent of "tweet" on the site.
As Mother Jones also reported, Trump is "obsessed" with trademarks, and has more than 200 relating to variations of his name alone.
The latest trademark filings related to TRUTH Social generated mockery online.
pic.twitter.com/V4pZI21BmA— SaintsOfLA (@SaintsOfLA) 1635130471
He should also trademark \u201c\u2026 and you know that.\u201d \n\u201cPeople have been talking about\u2026\u201d \u201cThe Steele Dossier \nis a lie.\u201d\u2026and \u201dI\u2019m a political prisoner.\u201d— Russ Buchanan (@Russ Buchanan) 1635125353
I really don't even have to say anything just read the headline. Lol. Truth. I'm dying inside. HuffPost: It Looks Like Trump Is Trying To Trademark 'Truthing,' 'Retruth' And 'Follow The Truth'.\nhttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/truth-social-media-donald-trump-trademark-truthing_n_6175d828e4b010d933128fdc?ncid=NEWSSTAND0001\u00a0\u2026\n\nvia @GoogleNews— sloppyswish (@sloppyswish) 1635167381
Good Grief! By this logic Stephen Colbert could have trademarked 'Truthiness' as his own word.\n\nIt Looks Like Trump Is Trying To Trademark \u2018Truthing,\u2019 \u2018Retruth\u2019 And \u2018Follow The Truth\u2019https://www.huffpost.com/entry/truth-social-media-donald-trump-trademark-truthing_n_6175d828e4b010d933128fdc\u00a0\u2026— Huey Duck M.O.T.S. (@Huey Duck M.O.T.S.) 1635159885
Given that Trump told more than 30 thousand lies over the course of his four years as President, people found the constant use of the word "truth" in relation to his site ridiculous.
Seems like the trademark office should not allow "Truth" to be used for lies.— Nick Roosevelt \u24cb (@Nick Roosevelt \u24cb) 1635125723
Make Truth True Again.— Bitcoinvintage (@Bitcoinvintage) 1635134838
. He doesn't tell truth , why should he try to trademark it??\n\nHuffPost: It Looks Like Trump Is Trying To Trademark 'Truthing,' 'Retruth' And 'Follow The Truth'.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/truth-social-media-donald-trump-trademark-truthing_n_6175d828e4b010d933128fdc?ncid=NEWSSTAND0001\u00a0\u2026— CeCeIsFULLYVaxxed (@CeCeIsFULLYVaxxed) 1635147421
Trump has already ruined words like \n"patriot" and 'freedom'.\n\nWhen anything as 'truth' as part of its name\nthen \nit is suspect.— talk to a doctor who you trust about vaccine (@talk to a doctor who you trust about vaccine) 1635126672
There are laws against trademarking "deceptive" words, but it's unclear if these will hinder Trump's latest trademark request.