The U.S. solicitor general’s petition in a trademark dispute over the mark “FUCT.” Photo: Mike Scarcella/ALM
By granting review in a case challenging the ban on registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks, the U.S. Supreme Court last week revived a perennial question: will the f-word be spoken aloud in the court’s hallowed chamber?
The case is Iancu v. Brunetti, and the dispute is over streetwear designer Erik Brunetti’s clothing line called FUCT. The government’s petition in the case shuns FUCT’s phonetic twin “fucked,” or the word “fuck,” though the appendix—which includes lower court rulings—uses the words 52 times.
