Trump's Provocative Tweet Is Skittled

This American presidential election has been the most lurid in memory and one of the many memorable and controversial moments came when Donald Trump Jr re-tweeted a meme where a bowl of Skittles was used as an analogy for Syrian refugees. The image in his tweet said, "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you would you take a handful?". "That's our Syrian refugee problem." At the time the tweet provoked the memorable response from the makers of Skittles that: "Skittles are candy, refugees are people."

This particular controversy had seemed to dissipate and has certainly been overshadowed by numerous other controversies surrounding Mr Trump and his campagin. It is now back in the news however as a UK-based photographer who took the photograph of the bowl of Skittles is taking legal action against Trump, Trump Jr, Mike Pence and Mr Trump's campaign for copyright infringement.

The photographer, David Kittos, a refugee himself who came to the UK as a young child from Cyprus, claims that he did not authorise the campaign to use his work. He said he was offended by the image's use in the campaign message.

The lawsuit has been filed in a Chicago federal court. Mr Kittos is seeking an injunction to prevent further infringement of his copyright. He is also seeking an unspecified sum in the way of damages. Mr Trump and his campaign have not responded to the claim yet but it is noticeable that although the words of the tweet remain on Mr Trump Jr's Twitter feed the image complained of has been deleted from the tweet.

This particular story will doubtless be eclipsed by the impending election and the resultant fallout. Given Mr Trump's bombastic nature however it will be interesting to see how he and his campaign deal with an apparently straightforward case of copyright infringement.