Here it is, the Infamous Fuck Brief. The filings are all public record and are freely available on the USPTO website. Nevertheless, anyone’s convenience, here they are.
- The USPTO’s initial rejection of the application.
- The initial appeal to the Examiner – this is the one that sparked the articles.
- The USPTO’s second refusal.
- The appeal to the TTAB – Not as fun to read as the appeal to the Examiner, but this is our brief of legal arguments for the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
Some nice ink on this case
For an interesting read on the use of Fuck, check out this Sexual Intelligence Blog entry.
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[…] First and foremost – it is doomed to failure. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the Executive Branch no longer must answer to anyone. But, far be it for me to criticize anyone for taking on a Quixotic battle. […]
[…] my opinion, this is Rule 11 land. I, of course, have my well-documented issues with §2(a) itself. (see here). Setting those aside, it appears that Nautica’s® attorneys went a little overboard with […]
[…] There is Nothing Wrong with FUCK I’ve been fighting formally for more than two years, and informally in every other blog posting, that there is nothing immoral or scandalous about the word fuck. See, e.g, The Fuck Brief. […]
[…] Scandalized? Heh. […]
Haha, thank you for sharing The Fuck Brief. That has to be the most entertaining legal document I have ever fucking read.
I came across this site while casually researching this very same topic dealing with 2(a) after leaning of this amorphous “Vulgar, Immoral and Scandalous” rejection language and I find it hard to believe that the country that is supposed to serve as an example to the rest of the world for civil liberties and freedom of speech has some mid level paper pusher deciding who gets a trademark based on his personal interpretation of a word with so many different meanings like “fuck” and ascribes one which he deems “vulgar reference to sex.” Give me a fucking break!
It’s only a word! No one is going to go blind or deaf if they see or hear it. And what is so vulgar about a word that can be used to describe the act of copulation anyways? Other than perhaps eating and breathing, what the fuck is more natural to adult humans than fucking?
Un-fucking real that some of these laws vaguely written laws are so prevalent in our legal system and that they give some douchebag the power to decide something as paramount as who does and does not get a trademark based on their own subjective determination masquerading as objecting findings.
Anyways, there’s appears to be lots of good stuff to read here so I may be back again!