A story posted by NPR is the best story I’ve seen so far in the battle by the Asian American rock band, The Slants, over the trademark of their name.
According to the story, the band has performed at numerous Asian American community events and is proud of their heritage.
So why then has the Patent & Trademark office continually rejected the band’s attempt to trademark its name.
According to a tweet from the band to AsAmNews, “It seems that they fear a politically charged situation based on race, even if they started it.”
The NPR story delves deeper into that issue.
In its original rejection in 2009, the Patent office cited Urban Dictionary and Wikipedia to back its claim the name was disparaging. The group responded by commissioning a poll of Asian Americans to show few from that community objected to the name.
The Patent Office wasn’t impressed.
“The intent of an applicant to disparage the referenced group is not necessary to find that the mark does, in fact, disparage that group,” responded the regulators.
The Slants in their response said the word slant had numerous meaning and did not necessarily carry a racial connotation.
Again, the Patent Office would not budge. Mark Lemley, a professor of intellectual property law at Stanford Law School and director of Stanford’s Law, Science & Technology program, explains why.
“Trademark law cares a lot about what consumers think, and so if the way people in the marketplace are likely to understand the term [is] as a reference to Asians, then that’s the way trademark law will treat it,” Lampley said. “It may actually have another meaning, but if people don’t recognize that meaning, it doesn’t matter.”
So how will The Slants move forward. You can read more about that along with a look at similar cases on NPR.
