article_snippet.sent: This week, a higher court scrutinized a lesser-known trademark -- when the band The Slants sought to protect The Slants name.
article_snippet.sent: Unfortunately, a bureaucrat at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decided that "Slant" was disparaging to Asians, and denied Asians a trademark registration under the despised (by me, anyhow) Section 2(a) of the trademark act.  
article_snippet.sent: In another decision, the trademark office initially denied a registration for Buddha Beachwear on the grounds that Buddhists would find the trademark office disparaging.
article_snippet.sent: But on reconsideration, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board held that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board should go forward stating it is "imperative that Appeal Board be careful to avoid interposing Appeal Board own judgment for that of Buddhists.
article_snippet.sent: For starters, by trying to protect Asians from racism, the court issued a disturbingly racist decision based on the fact that these were, in fact, Asians who intended their band name to invoke their ethnicity.  
article_snippet.sent: But, if a Sicilian (like me) were to seek to register the same exact name, with no such intent, I would enjoy that privilege.
article_snippet.sent: I guess I will start a protest band and call a protest band "The Guinea Pigs."  
article_snippet.sent: But, I won't be allowed to register that trademark -- although the five Asian guys from The Slants could.  
article_snippet.sent: Maybe we should just each register the other band's marks, and trade the other band after we get past the bureaucrats at the trademark office.
highlights_snippet.sent: Court upholds a trademark denial for Asian-American band