On June 26, 2017, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued Examination Guide 1-17 to address the Supreme Court’s decision Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S. ___ (2017), which held that the disparagement provision in Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), constitutes viewpoint discrimination and is facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. Starting in March 2016, the USPTO began suspending applications for marks subject to refusal under the disparagement and scandalousness provisions of Section 2(a) pending decisions on the constitutionality of these provisions in Tam (disparagement) and In re Brunetti, No. 15-1109 (Fed…. Read more