US Supreme Court bars 'Donald Trump too small' trademark
Supreme Court barred on Thursday a federal trademark for the phrase "Trump Too Small" — an irreverent criticism of former President Donald Trump — rejecting a California lawyer's claim that the trademark denial violated his constitutional free speech rights.
The justices overturned a lower court's decision that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's rejection of Steve Elster's application to register the trademark to exclusively use it on T-shirts violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
The case centered on a provision in a 1946 federal trademark law that bans the registration of any trademark that uses a living individual's name without their written consent. At issue was whether free speech protections for criticism of public figures outweigh the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's concerns over Trump's rights, as the lower court found.
Biden's administration asserted that the law is a permissible condition on a government benefit and does not illegally stifle free speech because it bars registrations regardless of the viewpoint conveyed. Elster argued that allowing public figures to trademark their own positive messages while precluding registrations that criticize them verges on viewpoint discrimination.
Elster applied for the trademark in 2018 to place on shirts — along with a mocking hand gesture illustration — invoking an exchange between Trump and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio during a debate among candidates for the 2016 Republican
