Supreme Court Rules Trademark Ban on Offensive Speech is Unconstitutional
June 19, 2017
23 Comments
on
The Supreme Court has ruled 8-0 that it is unconstitutional for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to not register offensive names under the federal trademark law's disparagement clause.
The Asian-American band The Slants did not receive a trademark due to this clause, which the justices found violated free speech. From CNN:
"Holding that the registration of a trademark converts the mark into government speech would constitute a huge and dangerous extension of the government-speech doctrine, for other systems of government registration (such as copyright) could easily be characterized in the same way," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion.