Supreme Court’s Playlist Features ‘The Slants’: Lanham Act Ban on Registering Disparaging Trademarks Held Unconstitutional
On June 19, 2017, in Matal v. Tam, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down a provision of the Lanham Act that prohibits federal registration of trademarks that “disparage . . . any “persons, living or dead.” 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a). The Asian-American rock band “The Slants” brought the case after it attempted to register its name as a trademark, but was rebuffed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which determined that the claimed mark was disparaging to Asian-Americans.