Supreme Court Dances Around The F-Word With Real Potential Financial Consequences
Dirty words make it to the U.S. Supreme Court only occasionally. One of those occasions came Monday, in a case involving a clothing line named "FUCT." The issue is whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acted unconstitutionally when it refused to grant trademark protection to the brand name. And, for the justices, the immediate problem was how to discuss the the F-word without actually saying it.
The "FUCT" clothing line, created by designer Eric Brunetti, is mainly hoodies, loose pants, shorts and T-shirts, all with the brand name prominently displayed.
[...] Brunetti's case got a boost two years ago when the Supreme Court ruled that an Asian-American band calling itself "The Slants" could not be denied trademark protection. The trademark office had turned the band down, because it deemed the name racially "disparaging," but the court said the denial amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
Dealing with the brand name "FUCT" proved a bit more daunting in the Supreme Court chamber Monday. Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart referred to the brand name as a "profane past participle form of a well-known word of profanity and perhaps the paradigmatic word of profanity in our language."
Also at Reuters.
Previously: Two Unanimous SCOTUS Victories for Free Speech
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday April 16 2019, @10:51PM (5 children)
I've seen folks in T-shirts hassled in airports...
you can't make this crap up!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @04:50AM
Back in 2000, I went on a family ski trip to Breckenridge [wikipedia.org]. There's a double-diamond run there called "The Devil's Crotch." It's steep and generally has big bumps (moguls). At a tourist shop in town, I saw a T-Shirt emblazoned with a curvy woman with horns, a tail and a pitchfork. Next to her was the double-diamond symbol (one of several used to rate the difficulty of ski runs [wikipedia.org]), and a caption reading "I licked The Devil's Crotch," and "Breckenridge, CO at the bottom. So of course I bought a couple of them. One for me and one for a friend.
A week or so after the trip, I went down to Orlando, FL for the SANS Conference [wikipedia.org].
I checked into my hotel, got changed and put on my new favorite t-shirt. As I walked over to the convention center, I started getting all kinds of dirty looks. I checked to make sure my zipper was up and then I realized it was the t-shirt.
I laughed. Some people are just really uptight and need to mind their own FUCTing (see what I did there?) business.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday April 17 2019, @05:42AM (3 children)
This one [tshirthell.com]?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday April 17 2019, @07:33AM (2 children)
I see your t-shirt and raise you a fuck. [amazon.com]
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday April 17 2019, @07:37AM (1 child)
I'd rather have these [amazon.com].
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday April 17 2019, @07:46AM
Those are cool, but you won't get as many admiring glances as when you're wearing a t shirt.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr