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Supreme Court Certiorari Grant: “The Slants” Case, Lee v. Tam

September 29, 2016| in Wegner's Writings| by Hal Wegner

The Supreme Court did not grant certiorari in any of the patent cases today.  But, the Court didgrant certiorari in a highly publicized trademark case:

Today in “The Slants” case, Lee v. Tam, Supreme Court No. 15-1293, opinion below, Tam v. Lee,808 F.3d 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2015)(Moore, J.)(en banc), the Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider a trademark issue:

Question Presented:   “Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1052(a), provides that no trademark shall be refused registration on account of its nature unless, inter alia, it ‘[c]onsists of *** matter which may disparage *** persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.’ The question presented is as follows:


“Whether the disparagement provision in 15 U.S.C. 1052(a) is facially invalid under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”

Double, Double Toil and Trouble:   The appellate case received substantial press attention. Together with the presence of five (5) opinions from the en banc court, this fueled grant ofcertiorari.  Beyond the main separate opinions were filed by O’Malley, J. (joined by Wallach, J., concurring);  Dyk, J. (joined by Lourie, Reyna, JJ., concurring in part and dissenting in part); Lourie, J. (dissenting); and Reyna, J. (dissenting).

Regards,
Hal

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