'Trump too small': SCOTUS can stop being the trademark police’, say lawyers

02-11-2023

Muireann Bolger

'Trump too small': SCOTUS can stop being the trademark police’, say lawyers

Evan El-Amin / shutterstock

The US’ top court is leaning towards the USPTO’s position in ‘Trump too Small’, finds Muireann Bolger.

One of the many lawsuits to arise from Donald Trump’s controversial election campaigns and presidency has finally reached the US Supreme Court. But perhaps not in the way he ever imagined.

During hearings held yesterday, November 1, US Supreme Court justices examined the case Vidal v Elster, which asks whether the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) refusal to register a trademark, ‘Trump Too Small’, violated free speech rights.

As lawyers tell WIPR, the justices appeared doubtful about whether the controversial political slogan could qualify as a legitimate trademark.


SCOTUS, trademarks, USPTO, Donald Trump, free speech, Lanham Act, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, designs

WIPR