Thursday, July 4, 2019

FUCT up, censorship down in Supreme Court trademark decision

 The WSJ has the story:

Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Immoral or Scandalous Trademarks
The decision is a win for California clothing designer’s streetwear brand, FUCT

"The government can’t reject trademarks it deems immoral or scandalous, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
“The First Amendment does not allow the government to penalize views just because many people, whether rightly or wrongly, see them as offensive,” Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote for the court, said from the bench.
"Two years ago, the court struck down a related provision denying registration to disparaging trademarks, which the government had invoked to cancel the Washington Redskins professional football team’s trademark and to reject an application from the Slants, an Asian-American rock band. The same rationale, said Justice Kagan, required invalidation of the restriction on immoral or scandalous marks: The 1946 trademark law, the Lanham Act, was unconstitutional to the extent it “disfavors certain ideas.”
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Sunday, February 19, 2017

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