The great White House merch war

Presented by United Indian Nations of Oklahoma and 141 Tribes Standing for Tribal Sovereignty:

Dec 07, 2022 View in browser   By Eli Stokols and Alex Thompson Presented by United Indian Nations of Oklahoma and 141 Tribes Standing for Tribal Sovereignty Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.   Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Eli If you're behind on Christmas shopping, here are a few politically-themed items to consider: an Air Force One flight jacket ($135), a set of two presidential challenge coins ($100) or a collection of six White House Easter eggs ($550). They're all available at "The White House Gift Shop." But similar items could also be found at "The White House Store," a competing online shop. Neither outfit has any actual affiliation with the real White House — a fact that sometimes causes consumer confusion and public service journalism . But they each have tried to lay claim to supremacy in the presidential apparel and paraphernalia market. Like something out of a CHRISTOPHER GUEST film, that competition between the two warring souvenir sellers recently resulted in a lawsuit. Claiming copyright infringement and deceptive trade practices, GIANNINI STRATEGIC ENTERPRISES , the LLC that runs "The White House Gift Shop," filed suit in Washington, D.C. district court last week against KENNETH TABOH, the proprietor of "The White House Store." A screenshot of "The White House Gift Shop." | Screenshot In its 19-page affidavit , the plaintiff claimed the defendant was copying its federally trademarked logo to market and sell products similar to their own "as affiliated with the White House" and to "trade off of Plaintiff's reputation and good will." The plaintiff claims that the rival website displays a phone number with a 202 area code "to deceive the consuming public into believing that Defendant operates the website thewhitehousestore.com from within the District of Columbia." "It's a frivolous lawsuit," said Taboh, who was reached by dialing a phone number listed on the website of a now defunct bartending school he used to run in San Diego. (We first tried to reach him on the 202 number listed on his "White House Store" site, but that led to a recording stating "restrictions" prevented the call's completion). Giannini Strategic Enterprises isn't based in D.C. either. It is registered in Pennsylvania and located in Michigan. On its own site , customers are given an address to mail back any items they want to return — in Michigan — as well as a toll-free number for customer service. But Giannini does have a federally registered trademark on the name "The White House Gift Shop," according to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office's registry. And, the plaintiff claims in the suit that it has been using the oval-shaped logo with the image of the White House going all the way back to 1946 (the federal trademark on the name was registered in 2014). By contrast, the plaintiff claims that the defendant's site has operated at least since December 2021. A screenshot of "The White House Gift Store." | Screenshot "Trademark owners have to do this – it's called policing your trademark," said KEITH ROBINSON, an expert on intellectual property law at Wake Forest University's law school. "In order to keep their rights, they have to actually go after infringers." Typically, Robinson said, a trademark owner would send a letter informing the second party that they're infringing on a trademark and requesting that they take it down. But that didn't happen in this case. "When I found out they were suing me, I immediately canceled [the site]," Taboh said. "If he wants to sue me, he's not going to win anything because he's suing me over a dead website." Taboh said his site was an Amazon affiliate store he launched five years ago during the Trump presidency, when he tried to make a few bucks by selling political merchandise. "The idea was just: if customers go through my front door, I would get paid," he said. "But my front door never opened. I made no money on the site and I moved on with my life." STEVEN WAR , the attorney representing Giannini, declined to speak about the details of the case but said Wednesday it may not need to proceed to trial. "We believe it's in the process of being resolved," he said. So if you are looking for political paraphernalia from a store that seems associated with the White House but actually isn't, you're likely stuck with The White House Gift Shop this holiday season. MESSAGE US — Are you NICOLE D'ARCANGELO, deputy director of volunteers, comment line, and greetings for presidential correspondence? We want to hear from you! And we'll keep you anonymous. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .   A message from United Indian Nations of Oklahoma and 141 Tribes Standing for Tribal Sovereignty: 141 federally recognized tribes from across America are warning Congress that H.R. 2758 and S. 3443 endanger the culture and identity of every tribe in the nation. Federal acknowledgment of tribes should be based on verified and authentic historical records, not on politics and backroom horse-trading. Click to watch the video and learn more: https://www.uinoklahoma.com/advocacy   POTUS PUZZLER This one is from Allie. Which president had a pet bobcat named Smoky? (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval ONE GIANT HINT: The president and first lady JILL BIDEN toasted to the president's 2024 reelection campaign at the state dinner last week with French President EMMANUEL MACRON and first lady BRIGITTE MACRON.Though Biden has not made a formal decision, and intends to announce it after the holidays, the moment sends a strong signal about his intentions, NYT's KATIE ROGERS and ANNIE KARNI report. 'AN EPIDEMIC OF HATE': Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF hosted a roundtable discussion Wednesday with administration officials and Jewish group leaders amid a rising surge in antisemitism in the U.S. "Let me be clear: Words matter," said Emhoff, who is Jewish. "People are no longer saying the quiet parts out loud. They are literally screaming them." Our KELLY HOPPER and EUGENE DANIELS have a recap here. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK's win in Georgia on Tuesday night. Several Biden officials took to Twitter to celebrate the win and point out its significance for the president. White House chief of staff RON KLAIN tweeted that Biden is "the first President since FDR 1934 to see every Senator in his party re-elected (who was seeking re-election.)" And the postmortem finger pointing from Republicans, from Indiana Sen. MIKE BRAUN to South Carolina Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM , had to have been especially delicious at 1600 Pennsylvania. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ: That the housing market is in a bit of a rut. According to WSJ's NICOLE FRIEDMAN and NICK TIMIRAOS "mortgage rates climbed above 7 percent to 20-year highs in October and November before ticking lower in recent weeks. … It is typical for rising interest rates to cool the housing market. But the speed of this year's mortgage-rate increase has created a sense of whiplash among buyers and sellers, and that makes it difficult to predict how long the housing slump will last and how bad it will get." CHRISTMAS TREE DECOR: The White House HIstorical Association's 2022 ornament is a gingerbread replica of the executive mansion. The White House Historical Association's 2022 Christmas Ornament. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo The piece "represents the cherished White House tradition of displaying a gingerbread house each holiday in the State Dining Room," one that started during the Nixon administration, the association says on its website. AP's DARLENE SUPERVILLE and NATHAN ELLGREN have more details. THE BUREAUCRATS ON THE MOVE: ALETHEA HARNEY, former senior adviser to the EPA administrator, is moving to the White House where she will be a senior adviser to the second gentleman.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today .     Agenda Setting IT'S ELECTRIC, BOOGIE WOOGIE: The Energy Department Wednesday announced efforts to electrify new federal buildings and cut emissions from the federal government's facilities, our KELSEY TAMBORRINO reports for Pro subscribers. The move is part of the Biden administration's larger initiative to reduce emissions from federal buildings by 50 percent by 2032 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2045. MORE LIKE, OW JONES: The Security and Exchange Commission is set to vote Dec. 14 on several proposals that could effectively overhaul the U.S. stock market. The measures would "reconstruct how individual investors' stock orders are executed, introduce new best-execution standards on brokerages and change exchanges' pricing structures," our DECLAN HARTY reports for Pro subscribers. HOPING IT'S THE LAST: The Department of Homeland Security earlier this week announced its delay enforcing Real ID-compliant licenses for travelers 18 and up to May 7, 2025. It wasn't the first time the administration has pushed the deadline — but lawmakers are hoping it's the last , our ANTHONY ADRAGNA, NANCY VU and NICHOLAS WU report. MANDATE FIGHT, PART 348: The White House is doubling down on its support for the Defense Department's Covid-19 vaccine mandate, as lawmakers aim to repeal the rule in its latest defense policy bill. White House National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY said the administration "continues to believe that repealing the vaccine mandate is a mistake. Making sure our troops are ready to defend this country and prepared to do so, that remains the president's priority and the vaccine requirement for Covid does just that." Kirby added that Republicans would "rather fight against the health and well-being of those troops, rather than protecting them." More details from CONNOR O'BRIEN .   A message from United Indian Nations of Oklahoma and 141 Tribes Standing for Tribal Sovereignty:   What We're Reading Inside the turmoil roiling No Labels' unity ticket presidential campaign (POLITICO's Daniel Lippman) The case in front of the Supreme Court Wednesday could upend electoral politics (CNN's Ariane de Vogue)   POLITICO AT CES 2023 : We are bringing a special edition of our Digital Future Daily newsletter to Las Vegas to cover CES 2023. The newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the event. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of CES 2023.     The Oppo Book Though CIA director WILLIAM BURNS may be the country's lead spy in his professional life, his personal life is probably more mellow than you'd think. "My wife and daughters, always my most loving and discerning critics, sometimes find it highly amusing that I'm leading an intelligence service — the world of JAMES BOND and JASON BOURNE and JACK RYAN," he said in a 2022 speech at Georgia Tech . "The truth as they point out is that I'm most comfortable driving a 2013 Subaru Outback at posted speed limits and that the height of technological achievement for me are those rare occasions when I can get the Roku remote to work." Political officials, they're just like us! POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER CALVIN COOLIDGE.  Smoky the bobcat "was trapped in the wilds of Tennessee and given to the Coolidges as a gift from the Great Smoky Mountains Association," according to the Presidential Pet Museum . "While the Coolidges were apprehensive about taking in a wild bobcat (justifiably, given all their other pets that Smoky would see as food) they felt they had no choice but to gracefully accept the bobcat." A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it. Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.   A message from United Indian Nations of Oklahoma and 141 Tribes Standing for Tribal Sovereignty: One hundred forty-one federally recognized tribes across America are standing up and warning Congress that H.R. 2758 and S. 3443 will undercut their sovereignty and lead to mass cultural appropriation. As Congress considers including these bills in year-end legislative packages, tribes are escalating their opposition. The United Indian Nations of Oklahoma has released a mini-documentary featuring a geographically and culturally diverse group of leaders explaining their opposition to recognizing groups like the Lumbee and MOWA without examination of their cultural claims. Titled Why We Stand, the video highlights how politicizing federal recognition and creating a path for false groups threatens the sovereignty, culture, and identity of every tribal nation in the country. Tribal leaders say culture and proven history should define tribes, not backroom deals and political horse-trading. Click to watch the video and learn more: https://www.uinoklahoma.com/advocacy     Follow us on Twitter Alex Thompson @AlexThomp Eli Stokols @EliStokols Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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