{"id":368,"date":"2016-01-15T17:59:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T17:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/craftbrewerylegalblog\/?p=368"},"modified":"2020-07-31T13:29:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T13:29:15","slug":"say-what-now-scandalous-beer-trademarks-are-protected-by-the-1st-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/craftbrewerylegalblog\/2016\/01\/15\/say-what-now-scandalous-beer-trademarks-are-protected-by-the-1st-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Say What Now?  Scandalous Beer Trademarks Are Protected By The 1st Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are some (while hilarious) probably offensive beer names and labels out there that are just cleverly hidden: Sweetwater\u2019s Happy Ending Imperial Stout; Stark\u2019s Mt. U Golden Cream Ale; Clown Shoes\u2019 Tramp Stamp; Rogue\u2019s Yellow Snow \u2013 you catch my drift. Edgy brewers have relied on double entendres out of necessity. Why? Because historically, if they named their beer something outright offensive they would not get trademark protection from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or the Tax and Trade Bureau because the law bars registration of any mark that is offensive or disparaging.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Well, the game may have just changed.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, the Federal Circuit court heard the appeal of Simon Shiao Tam, the lead singer of the Asian-American rock band called The Slants. The question before the court was whether the USPTO violated The Slants\u2019 First Amendment Right to free speech by barring them from trademarking their band name because it was deemed offensive to Asians. See my article covering\u00a0the issue\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.golocalworcester.com\/business\/nguyen-does-prohibiting-a-scandalous-trademark-infringe-on-the-right-to-fre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HERE<\/a>. Some brewers were paying close attention to this case because a decision in Tam\u2019s favor may open the floodgates for them to finally register their offensive trademarks. Put your waders on, my friends.<\/p>\n<p>On December 22, 2015, the Federal Court issued its decision, holding that the requirement that trademarks not be disparaging or offensive is unconstitutional. The court found that \u201cthe government\u2019s ability to impose content-based burdens on speech raises the specter that the government may effectively drive certain ideas or viewpoints from the marketplace.\u201d Translation, the government cannot bar someone\u2019s right to free speech simply because the government thinks that speech is offensive.<\/p>\n<p>While this is a huge triumph for craft brewers, they are not totally in the clear yet. Trademarks still need to be approved by the TTB, which also has a ban on labels that are \u201cobscene or indecent.\u201d However, if the Federal Circuit\u2019s ruling stands and is not overturned by the Supreme Court, it is likely that the TTB\u2019s big brother position will be changed to mirror that of the USPTO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are some (while hilarious) probably offensive beer names and labels out there that are just cleverly hidden: Sweetwater&rsquo;s Happy Ending Imperial Stout; Stark&rsquo;s Mt. U Golden Cream Ale; Clown Shoes&rsquo; Tramp Stamp; Rogue&rsquo;s Yellow Snow &ndash; you catch my drift. Edgy brewers have relied on double entendres out of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Say What Now? 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