Trump registered his trademark in Cuba in 2008 to establish motels, casinos and golfing courses

In spite of earlier claims in Miami that he would not do business enterprise in Cuba right up until the island was “free,” Donald Trump used in 2008 to register his Trump trademark in the Caribbean country for a selection of professional actions, together with investing in real estate, inns, casinos and golf courses.

A search of the Cuban Industrial Home Business office databases shows that Donald J. Trump employed a Cuban attorney, Leticia Laura Bermúdez Benítez, to submit the application in Oct 2008. The address stated was that of the Trump Corporation: 725 Fifth Avenue, New York, 10022.

As is frequent in Cuba, exactly where red tape is rampant, the trademark was not approved until eventually substantially afterwards, until finally March 2010. It expired in 2018, well into Trump’s presidency.

According to a description of his application, appearing both of those in the formal Cuban registry web page and in a 2009 bulletin, the trademark was related to “investment in real estate,” “beauty contests,” “golf courses,” “casino match companies,” “montage of tv programs,” and “hotel providers,” amongst many other activities detailed.

Even though President Trump may possibly have damaged his word about not seeking business enterprise in Cuba, given all through a 1999 speech at the Cuban American Countrywide Foundation in Miami, he did not violate the U.S. embargo in opposition to Cuba in submitting the application or employing the Cuban law firm. The Cuban Assets Manage Regulations, the Treasury Department’s rules to apply the trade embargo, involve exceptions to let the filing for logos and the payment of area agents to do so.

The Herald could not immediately contact Bermúdez Benítez. The White Property referred questions to the Trump Corporation. The latter also did not respond to a ask for for comment.

Hundreds of American firms, together with Netflix, Disney, Apple, Microsoft, and Starbucks, rushed to register their emblems in Cuba just after the two nations re-set up diplomatic relations in 2015. At the time, various legislation firms encouraged their clients to do so simply because “Cuba is a ‘first to file jurisdiction,’ which signifies a Cuban trademark registration will be awarded to the very first applicant, even if that applicant has not formerly employed the mark,” according to a shopper recognize issued by the law agency Hunton & Williams.

President Trump has imposed a number of new sanctions on the Cuban authorities and strengthened the embargo, citing human legal rights violations and the regime’s help to Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. His potent rhetoric in opposition to the authorities in Havana has provided him the important assist of a lot of Cuban American voters in Florida.

But his flirtations with enterprise on the island spanned many years.

In 1998, a Trump enterprise, Trump Motels & Casino Resorts, compensated a consulting firm all-around $68,000 for a business enterprise trip to Cuba on its behalf, in a very likely violation of the embargo at the time, in accordance to a Newsweek report.

More just lately, in 2013, executives from the Trump Business frequented Cuba to discover investing in a golf program east of Havana, in an area recognized as Monte Bello, Bloomberg Businessweek documented. And the CEO of a Spanish hotel chain declared that the Trump Business was searching into establishing lodges on the island when Trump was a presidential applicant in 2016.

His former presidential campaign supervisor, Paul Manafort, also traveled to Cuba in January 2017, according to a Senate report.