It’s no different from when businesses preemptively buy up Internet domain names to ensure competing interests don’t trick consumers with devilishly similar-sounding webpages.

There has been some confusion, however, over the Trump’s Chinese trademarks.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday morning, “China has granted preliminary approval for 38 new Trump trademarks, paving the way for President Donald Trump and his family to develop a host of branded businesses from hotels to insurance to bodyguard and escort services, public documents show.”

The report added, “The trademarks are for businesses including branded spas, massage parlors, golf clubs, hotels, insurance, finance and real-estate companies, retail shops, restaurants, bars, and private bodyguard and escort services.”

Though many readers (myself included!) were confused initially by the AP report, especially as it comes not too long after newsrooms uncovered a non-Trump-connected international business last year called “Trump Escorts,” it’s just not what it sounds like.

“Chinese trademark law grants priority to whoever files an application first, so lawyers often advise clients with wide-ranging business interests to file broad, defensive trademark applications against a range of products to prevent other people jumping in — a practice known as ‘trademark squatting,’ common in China,” the Washington Post’s China bureau chief, Simon Denyer, clarified Wednesday.

In layman’s terms, the Trump Organization is making sure no one in China capitalizes on the businessman’s brand by trademarking a business bearing his name.

The chief legal officer for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, told the Post, “The Trump Organization has been actively enforcing its intellectual property rights in China for more than a decade, and its core real estate related trademarks have been registered in China since 2011 — many years before President Trump even announced his candidacy for office.”

The attorney added, “The latest registrations are a natural result of those long-standing, diligent efforts, and any suggestion to the contrary demonstrates a complete disregard of the facts as well as a lack of understanding of international trademark law.”

It makes sense that the organization would try to protect against a Trump-branded escort service in China. The group has already dealt with this once, with the “Trump Escorts” episode, and it may be safe to assume they learned their lesson.

One last point worth noting, and this comes via the Post’s Philip Bump: “Of course, Trump now has another line of defense against being associated with escort services in China. Even if the Trump Organization were to use that trademark to set up escort services, Trump is not in charge of his eponymous business empire.”

“Any unpopular business created between now and Jan. 20, 2021, has nothing to do with the president himself,” he added.