It looks like the Asian-American rock band The Slants will get what it has wanted for years: a registered trademark—or as Justice Stephen Breyer put it, “a little circle with an R in it.”
During oral argument in the high-profile case Wednesday, Breyer and most other U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared sympathetic to the band in its battle against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The office in 2011 refused to register “The Slants” because of a section of the Lanham Act that prohibits “disparaging” trademarks.
