The dance-rock band the Slants have been shifting their sound from heavier music to indie pop, but that’s hardly the story that’s been making headlines. Around 2009, the group applied to trademark its ...

WASHINGTON — Simon Tam has openly criticized the Washington Redskins team name as a racist slur that demeans Native Americans. But Tam and his Asian-American rock band, The Slants, find themselves on ...

An Asian-American band’s six-year battle with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will move forward on Friday with a Federal District Court of Appeal hearing. “We’re just a step below the Supreme ...

The Supreme Court today struck down portions of the Lanham Act, a 1946 federal trademark law that allowed the government to deny “offensive” trademarks as a violation of trademark holders’ free speech ...

Six years after winning the rights to their name in a Supreme Court decision, dance-rock band The Slants will reunite one last time in Portland in support of their final album. “Our approach for this ...

In the 20th century, younger members of many minority groups repurposed offensive words that had been used as slurs and insults. African Americans and gays, in particular, transformed hateful brands ...

When the Portland-based Asian-American band chose to call themselves The Slants, they called it reappropriation. The federal government called it a racial slur. (Sarah Giffrow) When the Portland-based ...

On a Monday morning in June, Simon Tam woke up at his home in Portland, Ore., to 753 notifications blowing up his phone. "At that point, I knew something had happened," Tam said. The Supreme Court had ...

Simon Tam didn't think it would be a big deal when he applied for trademark protection on the name of his band, The Slants. It was 2011, and the band—a dance-rock group whose members are all ...

An Asian-American rock band called The Slants has taken a legal fight over its name all the way to an appeals court, resulting in a major decision over trademark rights. The Trademark Trial and Appeal ...