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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday October 01 2016, @12:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-defines-offensive dept.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would decide, once and for all, whether federal intellectual property regulators can refuse to issue trademarks with disparaging or inappropriate names.

At the center of the issue is a section of trademark law that actually forbids the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) from approving a trademark if it "consists of or comprises immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter; or matter which may disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute."

The case before the justices, which they will hear sometime in the upcoming term beginning in October, concerns the Portland-based Asian-American rock band called the Slants. Previously, decisions have come down on both sides regarding trademarking offensive names. The most notable denial is likely the name of the NFL's Washington franchise, "Redskins." But lesser known denials include "Stop the Islamization of America," "The Christian Prostitute," "AMISHHOMO," "Mormon Whiskey," "Ride Hard Retard," "Abort the Republicans," and "Democrats Shouldn't Breed."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/09/can-you-trademark-an-offensive-name-or-not-us-supreme-court-to-decide/


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:41PM (#408781)

    May not have been trademarked, but SJW's will always find something that offends them. A muffler shop "No Muff Too Tuff", A plumber "Buttcrack Plumbing". Then there's OTL team names which are NSFW.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Saturday October 01 2016, @04:17PM

    by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Saturday October 01 2016, @04:17PM (#408815) Homepage Journal

    May not have been trademarked, but SJW's will always find something that offends them. A muffler shop "No Muff Too Tuff", A plumber "Buttcrack Plumbing". Then there's OTL team names which are NSFW.

    Nope. It's usually the bible-thumpers who take offense. Assholes.

    I recall getting a wonderful T-shirt while skiing at Breckinridge [uncovercolorado.com] which had double black diamonds, a figure of a female with horns, a pitchfork and a tail and the legend, "I licked the Devil's Crotch --Breckinridge."

    Shortly thereafter, I went to a conference in Orlando, FL and since it was my new favorite t-shirt I was walking around wearing it. I got so many dirty looks from the Jesus people! Ridiculous. Not only do they subscribe to a demonstrably false belief system, they're all self-righteous about it. Assholes.

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @05:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @05:08PM (#408826)

      That reminds me of a t-shirt I was wearing (we were teens) when I met my girlfriends father, it was a cartoon character of a skinny cat that said "Happiness is a tight pussy". I don't know what I was thinking (yes I did), but he laughed at it instead of kicking my ass out the door.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @06:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @06:23PM (#408852)

        In college I had a t-shirt with a huge hairy disembodied vagina on a paisley background, all printed in black and white so it kind of looked like some weird organic/geometric art. The caption said "Read my lips ..." (I can't remember the rest of what it said, something pro-abortion though, right around the time of the famous "read my lips, no new taxes" line). Nobody ever noticed, or if they did, nobody ever said anything.