Dogfight: SCOTUS favours big brands in JD’s First Amendment clash

The Bad Spaniels case pitted the might of America Inc against a core principle of the US Constitution. Now that the country’s highest court has weighed in, what does this mean for brands?

As the US Supreme Court finally delivered its decision on the high-profile Bad Spaniels case this week, many established brand owners across the US are likely to be breathing a sigh of relief.

In a resounding win for Jack Daniels— and arguably, corporate America—the court unanimously reversed a controversial lower court’s decision that a dog toy version of a Jack Daniel’s bottle did not infringe the whiskey brand’s trademarks because it was a parody.

At the heart of the much-scrutinised dispute was the question of whether a crudely themed toy, which associated the whiskey brand with ‘dog poop’, should be protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.