Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Ban on ‘Scandalous’ Trademarks
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal law prohibiting “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks from being registered constitutes a violation of the First Amendment. By a 6–3 vote, the justices ruled in favor of a Los Angeles clothing line whose founder wishes to trademark the name “FUCT.” The government had argued that the brand’s name is “the equivalent of the past participle form of the paradigmatic profane word in our culture.” The brand is “pronounced as four letters, one after the other: F-U-C-T,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the ...
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