Slants & Skins Trademark Fight

Simon Tam and his Asian-American rock band, The Slants, find themselves on the same side as the NFL’s Washington Redskins in a First Amendment legal battle over trademark protection for names that some consider offensive.

Photo: Anthony Pidgeon / Redferns via AP

Asian-American band The Slants of Portland, Ore., are in a First Amendment legal fight, with the U.S. Supreme Court considering whether to hear a case alleging the band’s name is offensive to Asian-Americans.

The Supreme Court could decide as soon as this month whether to hear the dispute involving the Portland, Ore.-area band. And if the football team has its way, the justices could hear both cases in its new term. The issue is a constitutional challenge to a law barring the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from registering trademarks that belittle minority groups. The office denied a trademark to The Slants in 2011 after finding the name is a putdown to people of Asian descent.

The Slants claim its goal was not to offend anyone, but to transform a negative term about the shape of Asian eyes into a statement of ethnic and cultural pride. The band won a major victory in 2015 when a divided federal appeals court in the District of Columbia ruled the law prohibiting offensive trademarks violates free-speech rights.

The Redskins also claim their team name is meant to honor Native Americans but has faced years of legal challenges and a testy PR fight from that group. The Redskins case involves the trademark office’s move last year to cancel the team trademark that was first registered in 1967. A federal judge has agreed with that decision. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., has not yet considered the team’s appeal, but the Redskins are urging the Supreme Court not to wait. If the high court agrees to hear The Slants’ case, the team wants the justices to hear both disputes at the same time.

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