US appeals court finds ban on registering scandalous and immoral trade marks to be unconstitutional

Abstract

In re Brunetti, No. 2015–1109, slip op., Fed. Cir. 15 December 2017

On 15 December 2017 a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in In re Brunetti held the prohibition against the federal registration of ‘immoral … or scandalous’ trade marks in the US trade mark statute (the ‘Lanham Act’) to be a violation of the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. This ruling was widely expected since the 2017 US Supreme Court’s decision in Matal v Tam, 137 S Ct 1744 (2017), which struck down a similar prohibition against the registration of disparaging trade marks.