Matal v. Tam

Matal v. Tam
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 18, 2017 Decided June 19, 2017
Full case name	Joseph Matal, Interim Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Petitioner v. Simon Shiao Tam
Docket no.	15-1293
Citations	582 U.S. 218 (more) 137 S. Ct. 1744; 198 L. Ed. 2d 366; 122 U.S.P.Q.2d 1757
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	In re Tam, 808 F.3d 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2015); cert. granted, 137 S. Ct. 30 (2016).
Holding
The Lanham Act's prohibition against registering disparaging trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan · Neil Gorsuch
Case opinions
Majority	Alito (Parts I, II, and III–A), joined by Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan; Thomas (except Part II)
Plurality	Alito (Parts III–B, III–C, and IV), joined by Roberts, Thomas, Breyer
Concurrence	Kennedy (in part and in judgment), joined by Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan
Concurrence	Thomas (in part and in judgment)
Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I Lanham Act

Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S. 218 (2017) (previously known as Lee v. Tam) is a Supreme Court of the United States case that affirmed unanimously the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the provisions of the Lanham Act prohibiting registration of trademarks that may "disparage" persons, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols with the United States Patent and Trademark Office violated the First Amendment.^[1]