Trump vs Trump: RP real estate firm takes on the Donald

A leading Philippine real estate developer is taking on American real estate giant Donald Trump, and this time the TV producer cannot fire the one who has incurred his ire.

In a statement Wednesday from his headquarters in New York, Trump said he would take immediate legal action against Megaworld Corp. for its “outrageous attempt to mislead buyers into thinking that my name and company is affiliated with Megaworld’s project, which is absolutely untrue.”

Firing back, Megaworld’s investor relations officer John Hao said yesterday, “We do not need to ride on the name of Mr. Donald J. Trump as we are a leading property developer in the Philippines while Mr. Trump has no known real estate project in the country.”

Hao added that Megaworld Corp. filed its trademark application for the Trump name “well ahead” of the American developer, who also hosts the TV show, “The Apprentice.”

The dispute is pending with the Intellectual Property Office.

Now, who’s going to trump who in this real-life corporate drama between Trump and the Megaworld group, headed by Filipino-Chinese billionaire Andrew Tan?

It all began with a billboard with the name “THE TRUMPS” at the corner of De la Costa and Geronimo streets and Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City. The project is touted as “The Philippines’ Grand Address of Success.” A signboard proclaims that it is the project of the Megaworld Group.

A statement from the Trump organization says “the sign uses the same typeface used by The Trump Organization in many publications in a blatant effort to mislead the Filipino public into believing that The Trump Organization is affiliated with Megaworld’s project.”

Trump claims that the word “Trump” is “unmistakably associated with me and with my company throughout the world.”

Obviously ruffled by the billboard, the real estate mogul - who also recently exchanged barbs with TV host/comedienne Rose O’Donnel - said in a statement that “when someone says the word ‘Trump’ people certainly do not think of Megaworld.”

The statement further said that the Trump Organization and Megaworld have been involved in an ongoing proceeding before the Philippines’ Bureau of legal affairs since June 2007 “to protect Megaworld’s attempt to trademark the name ‘Trumps’ in the Philippines.”

Trump established the Trump Organization in 1980 as the umbrella organization of all his real estate developments and other corporate affiliates. The Trump Organization has over 22,000 employees.

Tan was listed recently by Forbes magazine as the Philippines’ newest billionaire. A self-made man who rose from poverty to become a real estate and brandy magnate in the Philippines, Tan founded Megaworld Corp. in 1989. The company was primarily organized to engage in real estate development, leasing and marketing. In 1994, it spun off Empire East Land Holdings, Inc., which focused on the middle-income market. In 1999, the company changed its name to Megaworld Corp. and from 1996 to 2006, Megaworld and its affiliates launched some 200 residential buildings, office buildings and a hotel in a total of more than two million square meters. Some of the major residential and office projects completed by the company include The Salcedo Park, One and Two Lafayette Square, The Manhattan Square and Petron Megaplaza in Makati City, and Eastwood Excelsior, One Orchard Road and IBM Plaza in Quezon City.

Megaworld is also behind Eastwood City in Libis, Quezon City, and continues to position it as the premier residential and business process outsourcing (BPO) enclave in the country as it speeds up construction of two more towers in the area-the Global One Center and the Eastwood LeGrand.