Over a year ago, the Slants, a Portland band headed by Simon Tam, tried filing a trademark for their band’s name. The trademark office rejected their registration for they deemed “slant” as a racially derogatory word and refused to issue the trademark. The Slants and ACLU appealed their decision all the way to the Federal Circuit Court that just issued its pro-Slants decision, “Words—even a single word—can be powerful. Mr. Simon Shiao Tam named his band THE SLANTS to make a statement about racial and cultural issues in this country. With his band name, Mr. Tam conveys more about our society than many volumes of undisputedly protected speech.”
Let’s congratulate the Slants on winning their right to be the Slants… and hopefully they will finally get their trademark.
Read the ACLU article on their fight.
