A Music Band May Register Trademark 'Slant'

choi

Brent Kendall, Controversial Trademark Is Allowed. Wall Street Journal, Dec 23, 2015.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/gove ... urt-says-1450809668

Quote:

(a) "The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington struck down a nearly 70-year-old provision in federal law [the 1946 Lanham Act] and sided with Simon Tam, the frontman for the Asian-American rock band the Slants. Mr Tam had sought to register the band’s name, but a US Patent and Trademark Office examiner denied the registration, saying the phrase was likely disparaging to people of Asian descent.

"The ruling could help the Washington Redskins football team, which is fighting a 2014 Patent and Trademark Office decision to cancel its trademarks because Native Americans found the name disparaging. The team’s case is in a different court [United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (based in Richmond, Virginia and covering Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia]

(b) Some Asian legal groups opposed Mr Tam’s case [calling the name] expressions of racism

Note:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) Lanham Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanham_Act
(c) Asians are said to have "slanty eyes."
(d) In re Simon Shiao Tam. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Dec 22, 2015 (en banc).
www.cafc.uscourts.gov/sites/defa ... on.12-18-2015.1.PDF
* The French term "en banc" (literally: on a bench) means a decision by all judges (who is not retired or semi-retired), rather than the customary practice of three judges.
* Usually a case starts at United States District Court. However, from an adverse ruling of a federal agency, a party is entitled, under federal statutes, to appeal directly to United States Court of Appeals, bypassing District Court.