Today, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of federal trademark law that would prevent businesses from registering trademarks that seem “scandalous” or “immoral.” The highest court is essentially allowing the registration of foul language trademarks, and held that the banning these words from registration violates the first amendment.
The ruling comes from a case involving a clothing brand with a name that was deemed to be “scandalous” or “immoral” by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Los Angeles based designer, Erick Brunetti, founded the fashion brand F-U-C-T, which stands for “Friends U Can’t Trust,” and filed a trademark application for the name in 2011. The office refused the application because the word FUCT sounded too similar to a widely known vulgar word. The USPTO, therefore, determined the mark consisted of “scandalous” or “immoral” subject matter.
However, the Court held that this century old provision is unconstitutional because it places a restriction on free speech. Before this ruling, the USPTO has refused about 150 trademark applications a year on the grounds that they were “scandalous” or “immoral.” Now, those companies whose applications were rejected can now re-submit their applications for approval, and they cannot be rejected based on this now overruled provision.
Written By: Julianna Salman
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