An Asian rock band’s lawsuit claiming that the Lanham Act’s prohibition against disparaging trademarks violated the First Amendment was heard by the Supreme Court (“Court”) earlier this week. The band had sued the Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) after it rejected the band’s application to trademark its name “The Slants” on grounds that its name was “disparaging.”
The Act, which is the federal law governing and regulating trademarks, empowers the PTO to decide whether to deny disparaging trademarks. The band’s case has direct relevance to the Redskins trademark case since it is also arguing that the PTO ran afoul of the First Amendment when it cancelled several of its decades-long trademarks.