Federal Circuit Rules That Government Cannot Bar Registration of Offensive Trademarks
In a widely anticipated decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled today that the government could not bar the registration of the trademark THE SLANTS for an Asian-American musical group on the grounds that the name is offensive. In doing so, the court invalidated Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, holding that the First Amendment prohibits the government from excluding protection to certain speech merely because it is offensive. It is likely that the government will appeal today's ruling to the Supreme Court.
This holding will be relevant to the pending case involving trademarks held by the Washington Redskins, which were recently cancelled by the Trademark Office on the grounds that the term is derogatory to Native Americans.
The full decision is here:
https://www.publicknowledge.org/documents/in-re-tam
Enterprise Account Director, Humanistic Lens-Based Artist, Volunteer
8 年Raffi, thanks for sharing - interesting content!