United States Federal Circuit

In a challenge to Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which bars the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) from registering scandalous, immoral, or disparaging marks, 15 U.S.C. section 1052(a), brought by a petitioner seeking trademark registration for his band name THE SLANTS, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's holding that petitioner's mark is unregistrable is vacated where: 1) under First Amendment principles, the government cannot refuse to register disparaging marks because it disapproves of the expressive messages conveyed by the mark; 2) it cannot refuse to register marks because it concludes that such marks will be disparaging to others; 3) the government regulation at issue amounts to viewpoint discrimination, and under the strict scrutiny review appropriate for government regulation of message or viewpoint, the disparagement proscription of section 2(a) is unconstitutional.

Appellate Information

• Published 2015/12/22

Judges

• MOORE

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel