Trump’s Truth Social has now been hit with trademark and rumoured financial problems

Former US president Donald Trump’s social media app, Truth Social, has been having a right stinker as of late – pun most definitely intended – as it deals with a rejected trademark application and alleged unpaid bills.

Since it was unveiled in October last year, the app has been marred by a string of issues:

• users were hit with long waitlists and tech issues when it became available to download in February due to “massive demand”
• Mr Trump appeared to mispronounce it ‘Truth Sensual’ during a rally in April
• it reportedly banned posts about the January 6th hearings in June (great for the whole ‘free speech’ thing, Don!)
• in the same month, a New York federal grand jury issued subpoenas to every board member of Digital World Acquisition Corp, who looked to make Truth Social public. This is in addition to the expansion of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into the merger.
• and Reuters reported the team behind Truth Social struggled to find employees because they only wanted right-wingers.

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Basically, everything’s going swimmingly, and these latest issues are absolutely nothing for Mr Trump to worry about, of course.

The trademark rejection

Mr Trump wanted to trademark the name ‘TruthSocial’, but it emerged this week that this was refused by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under Section 2d of the Trademark Act – basically, that getting the phrase trademarked would cause a “likelihood of confusion” with other companies which already have a registered trademark.

Unfortunately for the Republican, there’s already The Truth Network (a Christian talk radio station) and Vero – True Social (another social media platform).

The USPTO decision reads: “TruthSocial is confusingly similar to the registered marks, The Truth Network and Vero – True Social.

“As an initial matter, all the marks [are] a variation of the word ‘truth’, or in the case of Vero – True Social, ‘true’, which means all the marks look and sound similar initially to the average consumer.”

With the ruling being made earlier this month, Mr Trump now has six months to respond and appeal the refusal – and Axios reports that that is likely to be the case.

In the meantime, the mockery has been rolling in, with some suggesting alternative names for Truth Social to get around the whole trademark issue:

So by our count, that’s two types of applications which Trump is terrible at sorting…

Allegations of unpaid bills

Back in October last year, the internet infrastructure company RightForge agreed to host Truth Social, with political consultant and CEO Martin Avila telling Bloomberg News back in February that the firm is “not going to de-platform people for asking basic questions” and that’s why his company was the “perfect place” for Trump’s app to be hosted.

Except now, FOX Business report that RightForge claims it is owed around $1.6 million, because Truth Social “reneged on its contractually obligated monthly payments” to the company for hosting their platform.

Sources tell the outlet that Trump’s app only made three payments to RightForge - stopping them back in March - and that the company is threatening legal action in order to secure the money.

Mr Avila told FOX Business in a statement: “Our founding vision is to make a second internet to support American ideas online. RightForge believes in the mission of President Trump’s free speech platform and wish to continue supporting the president in his media endeavours.”

Indy100 has approached Trump Media and Technology Group, Truth Social’s parent company, for comment on the trademark rejection and RightForge’s allegations.

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