Hessick and Muller both agreed that Cork’s case is far more likely to see its day in court than CREW’s. “When you first file your complaint, it’s enough to just allege that, ‘I’ve lost business because of Trump,’” says Hessick. And it shouldn’t be hard to demonstrate that Trump is associated with the hotel—his name adorns the building’s facade in gold letters—or that its business is benefiting from his presidency, something members of the Trump family have all but explicitly acknowledged.

One aspect of Cork’s initial complaint unlikely to result in a favorable outcome is the restaurant’s claim that the Trump International is violating its lease with the General Services Administration, which owns the building the hotel inhabits. The GSA’s contract includes a clause stating that “no ... elected official of the Government of the United States ... shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom.” Though numerous legal experts, including those involved with CREW, attempted to make similar cases, the GSA has already stated that the arrangement under which the president transferred his businesses to his two adult sons and a Trump Organization executive was sufficient to resolve the conflicts of interest.

Even if they do successfully establish standing, Pitts and Gross’s case still faces an uphill battle in court. First, says Hessick, “they’re going to have to produce some sort of evidence that it’s because of the Trump Organization that they’re losing business,” such as a marked decline since the Trump International opened or direct statements from customers who chose to go there instead of Cork because of the association with the president. And though numerous foreign embassies have scheduled events at the Trump International, so far, none has directly cited Trump’s presidency as their reason for doing so.

Still, Muller believes that this may not be enough to actually win the case: “Usually, unfair competition claims are tethered in some illegal practice, like a tort—defaming the business of a competitor or infringing on their intellectual property.” While Trump having his name on the building “might be unfair in a popular sense, it’s almost surely not unfair in a legal sense,” says Muller. “You could almost drop this complaint in five years ago and say, ‘It’s really unfair that Donald Trump ran The Apprentice on NBC because he gets all this attention and publicity.’”

Though Cork does not mention the Emoluments Clause in its complaint, Hessick and Muller both suggested that a business in its situation could potentially have standing to do so. “If you had something akin to Cork’s lawsuit where you have a business that claims that it’s losing business because foreigners are going to the president’s businesses instead in order to give him money in hopes of developing good will, that’s a direct harm that could result in standing for an Emoluments Clause violation,” Hessick says.