Supreme Court Rules 1st Amendment Protects Even Immoral/Scandalous Trademarks
A divided Supreme Court issued its ruling in a 6-3 decision, striking down the U.S. Government’s ban on registering trademarks deemed to be immoral, vulgar, obscene or scandalous. The Court ultimately concluded that Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which prohibits the registration of any “immoral … or scandalous matter”, violates the First Amendment and the free speech rights of brand owners. The case at issue was Iancu v. Brunetti, 588 US _ (2019), where clothing designer Er