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SCOTUS Agrees to Hear Case Determining Federal Registrability of Immoral and Scandalous Trademarks
Many U.S. trademark attorneys were surprised in early January when the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear Iancu v. Brunetti. This case should determine the availability of federal trademark registration for “immoral” and “scandalous” marks – in this case, the acronym “FUCT” for a clothing line. Brunetti is the second case before the Court in three years to consider the constitutionality of the federal ban on registering certain categories of trademarks under Section 1052(a) of the Lanham Act.
The Court's willingness to take this case is particularly of note after its June 2017 decision in Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017), in which it upheld the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's 2014 holding that Section 1052(a)'s ban on the registration of “disparaging” marks violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution's protection for free speech. The Tam case involved the registrability of the mark “THE SLANTS,” the name of an Asian-American rock band; a parallel case about the “REDSKINS” mark for the name of the Washington, DC professional football team received the lion's share of media coverage and public interest.
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Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Coverage Issues Stemming from Dry Cleaner Contamination Suits
In recent years, there has been a growing number of dry cleaners claiming to be "organic," "green," or "eco-friendly." While that may be true with respect to some, many dry cleaners continue to use a cleaning method involving the use of a solvent called perchloroethylene, commonly known as perc. And, there seems to be an increasing number of lawsuits stemming from environmental problems associated with historic dry cleaning operations utilizing this chemical.