Denied Trademark For “Slants,” Asian-American Rock Band Appeals

The band was denied a trademark by the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on the grounds that its name is “disparaging,” and that decision was upheld by a panel of the Federal Circuit. However, an addendum opinion by Judge Kimberly Ann Moore raised questions about the precedent on which the panel’s decision was based, and her writing “caught the eye” of the court, writes Dennis Crouch in the Patently-O blog. As a result, that decision is now the subject of a sua sponte en banc rehearing, and the court has requested new briefs.