Supreme Court OKs FUCT Trademark, Strikes Down Ban on ‘Scandalous’ Trademarks
Sean Burch
A Los Angeles-based streetwear company can now get a trademark on its F-word-adjacent name, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday morning struck down a federal law banning “scandalous” or “immoral” registrations.
That’s good news for Erik Brunetti (pictured above), who launched FUCT nearly three decades ago alongside skateboarding icon Natas Kaupas, but has been unable to obtain a trademark for the brand’s name. The trademark office had considered applications to be “scandalous” if they were “shocking to the sense of truth, decency, or propriety” or were “disgraceful, offensive, disreputable.”
But Justice Elena Kagan, in explaining the court’s 6-3 ruling, said the law infringed on the First Amendment because it “disfavors certain ideas.”
The law, Kagan said, reached too far: rather than “draw the line at lewd, sexually explicit, or profane remarks,” it also covered “the universe of immoral or scandalous” content — giving the trademark office an unreasonable amount of flexibility to bar certain applications.
Kagan was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and four conservative members of the court — Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas — in reaching the decision. Chief Justice John Roberts, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor concurred in part and dissented in part.
Brunetti, the brother of film and TV producer Dana Brunetti, has been fighting since 2011 to get the brand name trademarked. It was initially denied because the name, which Brunetti said stands for “Friends U Can’t Trust,” was the “phonetic equivalent” of the curse word and deemed scandalous.
“According to Brunetti, the mark (which functions as the clothing’s brand name) is pronounced as four letters, one after the other: F-U-C-T. But you might read it differently and, if so, you would hardly be alone,” Kagan said.
Reps for FUCT did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Alito said registering such names “serves only to further coarsen our popular culture,” but nonetheless should be allowed on First Amendment grounds.
“Our decision does not prevent Congress from adopting a more carefully focused statute that precludes the registration of marks containing vulgar terms that play no real part in the expression of ideas,” Alito said in a concurring opinion.
The Court’s ruling now opens the door for brands that may have been barred on similar grounds to reapply for their trademark.
Former NBA guard Darius Morris has died at the age of 33. He played for five teams during his four NBA seasons. Morris played college basketball at Michigan.
Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab join forces to recap the draft in the best way they know how: letter grades! Fitz and Frank discuss all 32 teams division by division as they give a snapshot of how fans should be feeling heading into the 2024 season. The duo have key debates on the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, Las Vegas Raiders and more.