Winner of ‘FUCT’ Supreme Court Case Takes Loss on Blunter Mark

A designer, who pressed his FUCT trademark at the US Supreme Court and succeeded in nullifying a ban on registering vulgar trademarks, failed to get a more direct iteration of the term past the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Erik Brunetti can’t register “FUCK” for various goods including cell phone cases, jewelry, and luggage because it does not function as a trademark, the TTAB said in a precedential decision Monday. The decision in part hinged on the fact that the word is so ubiquitous, noting “it now appears without fuss in an impressive range of cultural domains.”

The decision noted ...