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Expert Analysis

Tread Carefully After High Court Offensive-Trademark Ruling

By Daniel Alvarez Sox (July 3, 2017, 11:28 AM EDT) -- For the past 71 years, the Lanham Act's "disparagement clause" prohibited the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from registering disparaging and offensive trademarks, like those incorporating racial slurs. On its basis, the USPTO denied an application by Simon Shiao Tam to trademark the name of his band, "The Slants," a racially derisive term for Asians. Tam, an Asian-American, sought to combat the slur's denigrating force by reclaiming it. He appealed the USPTO's denial to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. The court agreed unanimously that the disparagement clause violated the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause....

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