Keywords
Trademark ID manual, First Amendment, USPTO
Abstract
Using evidence drawn from the USPTO’s treatment of 221 identifications submitted for inclusion in the Trademark ID Manual (including 43 this Author submitted on their own and as part of a team), this Article, the first ever written on the ID Manual, argues that the USPTO’s administration of the Manual systematically disadvantages trademark applicants offering lawful but socially disfavored goods or services, such as those relating to cannabis, sexual health, or “vice.”
By deliberately refusing to include identifications of goods and services relating to entire categories of commerce in the ID Manual, the USPTO imposes higher costs, greater uncertainty, and increased procedural friction on certain disfavored applicants without any transparent standards or even statutory authorization. These omissions continue a pattern of institutional risk aversion that echoes the USPTO’s previous refusal to register “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks, years after the Supreme Court struck down relevant bars on such matters as unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment.
Recommended Citation
Rachael Dickson,
Discrimination in the Trademark ID Manual,
36 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 764
(2026).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol36/iss4/2