China grants Ivanka Trump 5 trademarks amid trade talks with US: Report

United States President Donald Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump has been granted preliminary approval for five trademarks linked to her company, news agency AP reported on Tuesday (Jan 22).

This comes amid ongoing trade talks between the two countries, following months of tit-for-tat tariffs in a protracted trade dispute.

According to AP, the trademarks were approved on Sunday for childcare centres, sunglasses and wedding dresses, while those for charitable fundraising and art valuation services were given the green light on Jan 6.

The applications - filed in 2016 and 2017 - will be finalised after 90 days if there are no objections, it added.

“The sheer number of foreign trademarks Ivanka Trump has gotten while working in the White House would be troubling enough, but the fact that she just got one for charitable fundraising when her father’s namesake foundation - which she served as a board member for and is closing in scandal following a New York Attorney General investigation outlining numerous legal violations - is especially troubling,” Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told AP.

Ivanka Trump announced on Jul 24 that she was closing her eponymous fashion brand, following a firestorm of criticism about potential conflicts of interests and flagging sales fuelled by a political backlash.

In January 2017 she announced that she was stepping down from the family real estate firm, The Trump Organisation, and from actively managing her brand, which was placed into a trust.

But the brand was thrust into a major backlash fuelled by opposition to the Trump administration and calls for a boycott on those doing business with the first family.

Back in June 2018, the New York state attorney general sued Trump, three of his children - including Ivanka Trump - and his foundation, saying he illegally used the nonprofit as a personal "checkbook" for his own benefit, including his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has called for a dismissal of the lawsuit calling it a politically motivated attack.