Should “The Slants” be a Trademarked Name?

By Jeff | Sunday, February 27, 2011 | 14 Comments

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the slants 600x469 Should The Slants be a Trademarked Name?

Portland, Oregon rock band The Slants’ attempt to trademark their name has been rejected by the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO), apparently because the department thought that the name was disparaging to Asian Americans. In their application, the band’s attorneys submitted examples of Asian American media supporting the Slants and descriptions of the band’s involvements with Asian American cultural festivals and non-profits.

“This is a case where the government is making a decision about how members of a minority group can define themselves. The U.S. Government shouldn’t be in the business of making those kinds of decisions. The determination of whether a specific term or phrase is disparaging can only be made from the point of view of the referenced minority group.”

says Spencer Trowbridge of the law firm McNamer and Company, which represents the Slants. Adds, Mari Watanabe, of the Oregon Nikkei endowment:

“As a Japanese-American, and lifelong activist within the Asian American community, I do not consider The Slants’ use of their name disparaging. The name is being used in a self-referential manner, carrying a message that promotes Asian culture. This use does not disparage Asian identity; it celebrates it.”

The USPTO counters that while the band “may be laudable… rarely does an article introduce the band without commenting on the controversial nature of the band’s name.” Indeed, 8Asians’ first article on The Slants highlighted their controversial name.

Is the band’s name a slur that should not be trademarked? Is it just a publicity stunt? Is it a celebration of Asian Americans, an ironic usage that seizes power from those who use it as a racial insult? What do you all think?

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PeterLo

Couldn’t they come up with some other name that references asian american culture?
http://www.erniehsiung.com/ Ernie H.

@PeterLo Like, say, BANANA?
SimonTam

@PeterLo It wasn’t so much to create a reference to Asian American culture for us as to take on stereotypes about API’s, taking ownership of them, and creating a positive association/sense of empowerment with the name.Other minorities and groups have done the same thing – for example, 20-30 years ago, it would be entirely inappropriate to address a member of the LGBT community as queer but it’s a term that they embraced and have taken on.
PeterLo

@SimonTam I suppose the evolution of the term, “hapa” occurred in a very similar way. Another example.

The slant or “chink-eye” gesture may have become an offensive gesture because it was frequently used in a derogatory context that marginalizes asian americans. So it is applaudable that “the slants” are making an honest attempt to change this context. The execution of their visual aesthetic, however, appears to reaffirm clichéd images of “azns” or “chinatowns” that does little to alter an already heavily perpetuated image of asian americans as unidimensional perpetual foreigners. From the flow of their album artwork, websites, and sponsors, it appears to me that the use of the buzzword is used more as a gimmick than as an honest appeal to alter what it means to be asian in america. I think The Slants should keep the name, but should re-think the way in which they brand themselves.
PeterLo

@ErnieHsiung Yellow on the outside, white on the inside? :p Maybe you could tell me what was the reasoning behind the naming of “banana-2″ that I’ve been reading about on twitter all this weekend.
SimonTam

@PeterLo I am in the band and I have to say that everything we do is deliberate to show the fact that we’re not afraid of hiding our Asian ethnicity or culture.

The reason why we chose the motto “Chinatown Dance Rock” to describe our music because Chinatowns tend to have their own set of stereotypes – all Chinese, outsiders, etc. when it’s often the place of entry for immigrants of all Asian descents and where those different individuals tend to be agreeable (Asians uniting because they tend to be stereotyped or treated in the same way).

As for our visual aethetic, graphics, etc. we wanted something that reflected our pan-Asian culture, which is why we have things such dragons, various flags or maps from our respective countries throughout our albums, etc. All album artwork was done by Asian American artists who are also activists in the community who work to fight similiar stereotypes. I can assure you that we spend a good amount of time with this band specifically advocating for Asian rights. We’re involved with over 20 API organizations, large amounts of the money received from album sales go to support API causes (100% of the profits from our second album go to a special fund to help Asian American women and cancer research), and we do cultural awareness/diversity workshops at all of our performances with anime conventions, festivals, etc. It’s something that we’re very passionate about – celebrating the beauty of our shared pan-Asian identity and fighting for API rights.
http://www.asianmanwhitewoman.com/ MrDatingCoach

There is nothing wrong with taking a term that was seen as derogatory and changing the meaning around into something positive. The U.S patent office is correct in their decision to not approve of the name initially because of the negative connotation associated with it. If other Asian organizations approve of this name, and other Asians don’t seem to have a problem with it, then I don’t see why they can’t use the name.
http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

I think it’s funny how they (USPTO) has an issue with the trademark of “The Slants” and yet, granted numerous other musical trademarks such as the one to Compton Records back in the early 2000s for N.W.A. (acronym and full name). While I’m not an attorney, I would assume that trademarks are purely protections for legal ramifications. Whether or not someone wants to call themselves one thing or another really shouldn’t make any bit of difference on how controversial it is on legal grounds. Thus, from that pov, it seems like USPTO has overstepped their bounds.

On that note, I’ll also provide the fact that there is a band called “The Queers” that is under the label of Asian Man Records. Would you deny the application of that band for a trademark too?

Sounds like someone at USPTO isn’t following the boundaries of law and being subjective. Unless there’s a clause somewhere that says you can’t trademark terms of derogatory terms. If that’s the case, then I’d probably say that they need some leverage from ACLU or someone with deep pockets since it still weighs in as subjective.

I’ll also mention the fact that by precedence, the USPTO has granted multiple “oriental” terms which if I’m not mistaken is not PC in this day and age (although I never had any issues with it). Still, that term is “disparaging to Asian Americans”. Sounds like they’re off their rockers here.
SimonTam

@darkmoon I don’t know all of the laws involved (that’s what our attorney helping on this is for) but I do know that what it’s really coming down to is the fact that a government entity, especially one that doesn’t really have a connection with the Asian American community, shouldn’t have the right to decide what is appropriate or not for us. It should be up to the community at large. And if an overhwelming amount of evidence shows that the majority of API’s don’t find the term disparaging, that should be enough. I mean, we have lifelng activists for API rights, Japanese nikkei who were in the interment camps, most of the largest API media sources, and organizations across the country who have voiced their support. That alone should provide a more reliable source than the Trademark Office’s “evidence” such as urbandictionary.com saying that the mark is disparaging. Ridiculous.

Asians should have the same right to embrace and re-appropriate words as other groups. This case goes beyond just our band, it affects the rights of all minority groups in the future. It specifically will be affecting other API’s using the term as well, such as the Slant Film Festival, Slant-TV show, Slanted Magazine, even the API documentary The Slanted Screen.
http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

@SimonTam I think that it’s not up to USPTO to make that decision either. They’re not the court. They just grant patents/trademarks and whether or not it’s infringed.

As far as the Slant Film Festival and the rest, it only effects them if they register for a trademark.

I will tell you knowing many people within the federal government, it could be that you just had the bad luck of landing some person that believes it’s their right to make decisions like that. Personally, I believe your appeal has merit and maybe you can sell this to someone with some more weight (like ACLU). It probably wouldn’t be bad to get your attorney to talk to them and maybe see if they’ll help. While private firms are great for certain types of things, sometimes it takes a bigger beast to sway a decision.
Pingback: Worst Ever: The Slants Denied Trademark to Own Bandname « a-Tunes
PeterLo

@SimonTam As a member of the same community, I respectfully disagree with the bang’s presentation. I hope that you continue to think and reflect on how these images are interpreted and recieved.
SimonSlant

@PeterLo @SimonTam Hi Peter – I understand that not everyone is going to understand or appreciate our band’s presentation. For us, we don’t see it as something that is cliche, but as bold presentations of Asian and Asian American culture and identity…in other words, we’re not afraid to show our “Asian-ness” but are rather proud of it and show that it is something that is genuinely Asian as welll as American. The same could be said of other artists, such as “Far East Movement” (even in their name, could be interpreted as something perpetuating the idea of being a foreigner, etc.) though by what they are doing – breaking into the mainstream market, beyond API audience, ythey are showing that something that is a geuine part of our culture can be cool, accepted, and available to all audiences.

We do strive to keep a good balance of these things and we spend a good amount of time interacting with fans on these matters. Believe it or not, this is more than just a simple “rock band.” Every year, we perform at dozens of cultural festivals, colleges, schools, etc. often to crowds exceeding 10,000+ and then spend time with attendees in racial/socail justice workshops, breaking down the barriers of racism and stereotypes. We’re involved with almost two dozen Asian and Asian American non-profit groups and partner with them to get this same messaging out. It might not be visible to the general public, but I have to say, gettting hundreds of emails each year from fans saying that they now have an actual Asian American band to look up to is really encouraging. Helping youth become proud, rather than ashamed of their heritage is something that we do and keeps what we do – everything from the music to our artwork – as heartfelt and sincere of an outreach message as possible.

As far as how its received – we’ve worked with almost every major API media outlet in the country, all of them supporting what we do. In addition, we encounter non-API folks all the time who feel inspired to actually do research and also help join API organizations to advocate for our under represented rights. While it might not please every individual, I can say that the community at large feels it is entirely appropriate and actually helping perceptions of how API’s are being received (especially in the rock world, where there are not many Asian American bands playing both inside and outside of the community).
SimonSlant

@darkmoon @SimonTam We’re actually in talks with a few organizations, though its really going to be up to our legal side to decide what the best course of action on this is. In the meantime, I’m just working with API individuals and organizations to help rally everyone together and fight this case showing community-wide support, etc