Source:AFP
The US Supreme Court on Monday took up the government’s refusal to register a trademark by a clothing line named “Fuct.”
The case pits a provision of US trademark law that allows the government to deny requests on the basis of “immoral” or “scandalous” words against the bedrock principles of free speech enshrined in the Constitution.
It all started with provocateur, artist and designer Erik Brunetti, who founded the streetwear brand in 1990. It rhymes with plucked.
Under the label, he has since freely sold clothing with anti-religious, anti-government slogans and motifs, often parodying pop culture.
But in 2011, authorities refused to register “Fuct” at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, citing a provision that dates back to 1905.
Brunetti, feeling that his rights had been violated, took his fight to the courts.
In December 2017, a federal appeals court ruled in his favor. According to its findings, the law invoked violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution that guarantees free speech.
But the administration of President Donald Trump then asked the top bench to give a final ruling on the matter.
The provision in question “does not restrict [the] respondent’s ability to express himself, through use of his mark or otherwise, but simply denies him the advantages associated with federal trademark registration,” the US administration has argued.
“The board concluded that the mark was vulgar and therefore unregistrable.”
Yet vulgarity plays an important role in society, according to the Cato Institute, which has backed Brunetti in the fight.
Brunetti has asked the Supreme Court to apply the same reasoning it did in a 2017 case when it ruled that an Asian-American band could trademark its name “The Slants” despite its racist connotations.
“We have said time and again that ‘the public expression of ideas may not be prohibited merely because the ideas are themselves offensive to some of their hearers,'” Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote in that ruling, citing previous decisions.
