The U.S. Supreme Court this week officially pulled the plug on the Lanham Act’s prohibition on the registration of trademarks that comprise “immoral” or “scandalous” matter on First Amendment grounds. The prohibition, found in Section 2(a) of the Act, was already on life support after the Court’s
Alarm bells rather than wedding bells are ringing in the insular but passionate world of romance novels as authors and publishers grapple with the question whether an author can claim exclusive rights to use “cocky” in book titles.
It started in early May, 2018. A self-published author named Faleena Hopkins obtained a registration for “cocky”