On Sunday, by a vote of 8-0 (Gorsuch didn’t rule), the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Matal v. Tam, which involved a patent application to trademark the name “The Slants,” an Asian band of which Simon Tam was a member. Tam’s attempt to patent trademark the band’s name was rejected by the trademark office, but a federal appeals court ruled that that rejection was illegal because the U.S.’s Lanham Act (1946), under which the application was rejected, was unconstitutional. That Act is the U.S.’s main trademark law, and prohibits trademarks that disparage individuals or groups. The initial rejection was, I think, based on the fact that “slant” is a slur on Asians, referring to their eye shape (they have an epicanthal fold), and thus that the name disparages an ethnic group. The Slants comprise four Asian-Americans, but that doesn’t matter:
The Slants
The appeals…
View original post 284 more words
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments