Every now and then, a court case on a mundane topic grabs the public’s attention simply because of its colorful facts. Most people do not care about the nuances of federal registration of trademarks, for example, but everyone perks up when they hear the Supreme Court is considering the registrability of the trademark FUCT, as happened in 2019 in Iancu v. Brunetti.
I want to revisit Brunetti and its predecessor Matal v. Tam here for two reasons. First, they provide an entryway for discussing the relationship between trademarks and consumer protection, in particular how courts view the consumer protection function of trademarks as secondary to commercial interests. Second, despite its colorful nature Brunetti was a mundane case, which can be more illuminating on the thinking of justices than “blockbuster” cases, particularly when it comes to matters of statutory and constitutional interpretation.
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