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69 Emory L.J. Online 2001 (2019-2020)

handle is hein.journals/emyon69 and id is 1 raw text is: Note from the Author & Editors: This Essay addresses a concerning issue that has recently arisen in trademark law-the use of offensive language, including racial slurs, as trademarks. Discussing and using offensive language in any professional setting, including academic scholarship, is challenging and fraught with controversy. During oral argument in Iancu v. Brunetti, one of the cases discussed in this piece, Justice Gorsuch pleaded: I don't want to go through the examples. I really don't want to do that.* The unfortunate reality, as this Essay discusses, is that highly offensive racial slurs and other terms can potentially be registered as trademarks after Brunetti and Matal v. Tam. To depict this new reality and to provide a visualization of the ramifications of these cases, we are choosing to include certain racial slurs and visuals, unaltered, as examples of the types of words and images that could now appear as trademarks. For one particular racial epithet, however, we choose to alter its presentation, using asterisks to replace certain internal letters therein. It is not our intention to cause harm to any readers, or to be insensitive in our choice to use offensive and hurtful terms, whether altered or unaltered. We made our decisions after several careful and thorough discussions within the Emory Law Journal staff and with the greater Emory Law School community. We understand that the use of the racial slurs below will be distressing to some readers, and we respect that readers may want to avoid reading this Essay because of the presence of such material. I Transcript of Oral Argument at 21, lancu v. Brunetti, 139 S. Ct. 2294 (2019) (No. 18-302).