Michelle K. Lee, Petitioner
Ian Heath Gershengorn, Acting Solicitor General
The right of inventors, authors, and artists to their intellectual property is secured in the U.S. Constitution and has been protected by law since 1870. The modern system for registering trademarks, however, was detailed in the Lanham Act of 1946. One portion of this Act gives the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) the right to deny registration of a mark that the government determines to be disparaging to “persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs or national symbols.” In 2011, the PTO denied a trademark application made by Simon Tam, an Asian American activist, for his rock band, The Slants,…
