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Ron Coleman: Free Speech on Trial
Attorney Ron Coleman joins Tim to talk about his U.S. Supreme Court victory for an Asian-American rock band called The Slants over the issue of free speech. Ron details a case that is now a landmark Supreme Court victory for freedom of speech.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Free_Speech_On_Trial_auphonic.mp3
In June of 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that marked the end to an eight-year legal battle that pitted the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office against a four-member rock band over their right to choose and trademark their name. The name? “The Slants.”
Officially, the case is called “United States Patent and Trademark Office versus Tam.”
The issue was the Trademark Office’s decision to prohibit the registration of a trademark “which may disparage…persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.”
We’re going to talk to our guest Ron Coleman today about precisely what that means in everyday language.
But the key thing to remember here, as in so many cases where the Supreme Court has come down on matters of free speech – it has come down on the side of protecting freedom of expression even if that expression is offensive to some.
Ron Coleman is careful to point out, that an idea cannot be prohibited just because that idea may be offensive to some.
Please Thank Our Sponsors
Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist. If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:
* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting
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Links
* Dhillon Law Group
* First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
* Inside Asian-American Band the Slants' SCOTUS Win, Rolling Stone
About this Episode's Guest Ron Coleman
Photo by Steve Hockstein/HarvardStudio.com
Ron Coleman is a Partner at the Dhillon Law Group and resident in its New York office. Ron is a commercial litigator with extensive first-seat trial and appellate experience who focuses on torts of competition such as trademark infringement, unfair competition and consumer law.
He is known for his First Amendment advocacy, regarding both religious and free speech rights, including his representation of Simon Tam and “The Slants” in the watershed free speech case, Matal v. Tam, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition against registration of “disparaging” trademarks was unconstitutional.
An alumnus of a number of major commercial firms in New York and New Jersey, the states in which he is admitted, Ron maintains a leading-edge media practice representing political and new media figures in defamation and intellectual property claims, challenges to social media “cancel culture” or “deplatforming” cases as well as traditional intellectual property litigation on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendan...
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By Tim O'Brien
5
7676 ratings
Attorney Ron Coleman joins Tim to talk about his U.S. Supreme Court victory for an Asian-American rock band called The Slants over the issue of free speech. Ron details a case that is now a landmark Supreme Court victory for freedom of speech.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Free_Speech_On_Trial_auphonic.mp3
In June of 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that marked the end to an eight-year legal battle that pitted the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office against a four-member rock band over their right to choose and trademark their name. The name? “The Slants.”
Officially, the case is called “United States Patent and Trademark Office versus Tam.”
The issue was the Trademark Office’s decision to prohibit the registration of a trademark “which may disparage…persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.”
We’re going to talk to our guest Ron Coleman today about precisely what that means in everyday language.
But the key thing to remember here, as in so many cases where the Supreme Court has come down on matters of free speech – it has come down on the side of protecting freedom of expression even if that expression is offensive to some.
Ron Coleman is careful to point out, that an idea cannot be prohibited just because that idea may be offensive to some.
Please Thank Our Sponsors
Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist. If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:
* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting
* Dell Outlet Overstock Computer Center
* Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting
Links
* Dhillon Law Group
* First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
* Inside Asian-American Band the Slants' SCOTUS Win, Rolling Stone
About this Episode's Guest Ron Coleman
Photo by Steve Hockstein/HarvardStudio.com
Ron Coleman is a Partner at the Dhillon Law Group and resident in its New York office. Ron is a commercial litigator with extensive first-seat trial and appellate experience who focuses on torts of competition such as trademark infringement, unfair competition and consumer law.
He is known for his First Amendment advocacy, regarding both religious and free speech rights, including his representation of Simon Tam and “The Slants” in the watershed free speech case, Matal v. Tam, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition against registration of “disparaging” trademarks was unconstitutional.
An alumnus of a number of major commercial firms in New York and New Jersey, the states in which he is admitted, Ron maintains a leading-edge media practice representing political and new media figures in defamation and intellectual property claims, challenges to social media “cancel culture” or “deplatforming” cases as well as traditional intellectual property litigation on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendan...