Justices Have Multiple Paths To Doom ‘Trump Too Small’ Trademark

US Supreme Court justices this week made it clear they’re likely to reverse an appeals court’s ruling allowing a “Trump Too Small” trademark to be registered, leaving only the question of how, attorneys said.

The justices’s questioning at oral argument Nov. 1 indicated a near-consensus that the US Patent and Trademark Office’s application of a statutory ban on registrations referencing living individuals without consent doesn’t run afoul of the First Amendment, attorneys broadly agreed. Applicant Steve Elster had convinced an appeals court last year that the government action impinged his speech.

The high court’s apparent lean toward upholding the ban ...