Federal Circuit Rules That Lanham Act’s Ban on Registering Scandalous Or Immoral Trademarks Is Unconstitutional
On December 15, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the Lanham Act’s ban on registration of “scandalous” or “immoral” trademarks is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech. Artist Erik Brunetti brought suit after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) refused to register “Fuct” as the name of his clothing brand. The Brunetti case was decided in the wake of Matal v. Tam, in which the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the Lanham Act’s prohibition on registering “disparaging” trademarks, and reversed the PTO’s refusal to register “The Slants” as the name of Simon Tam’s Asian-American rock band.