The Slants’ Saga Ends: USPTO Registers Service Mark

On November 14, 2017, six years to the day after the application was first filed with the USPTO which precipitated the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Matal v. Tam[1] striking down the disparagement clause of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, the USPTO has registered THE SLANTS service mark in International Class 41 for entertainment services. So ends the tale of one Asian-American band trying to register a federally-protected mark for its band’s work, and the dismantling of one of the more controversial provisions of the Lanham Act when it was first enacted in 1946. Our previous blog post discussed the Tam ruling.