Trademark Caselaw | Colombia | FUCKING PR (Logo) Refused for Being Vulgar

On February 11, 2020, Colombia’s patent and trademark office (SIC, for its Spanish acronym), refused the registration of trademark FUCKING PR (Logo), goods in class 25.

Trademark FUNCKING PR (Logo), as filed with SIC.

SIC found the subject mark to be immoral since it is associated with a vulgar expression, thus refused its registration pursuant to article 135(p) Decision 486 of the Andean Community Commission, which prescribes the Common Industrial Property Regime for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

In refusing the proposed trademark, SIC laid down the grounds for the examination of vulgar trademarks in Colombia, specifically stating that registrability shall be evaluated from the point of view of conduct inherent to the society where the subject mark would identify goods or services and defining morals as the following of basic social norms valid within a social group; and good practices or manners, which it understood to be all law-abiding customs.

SIC’s refusal is consistent with similar decisions in some Latin American jurisdictions, i.e., IMPI’s refusal to register FUCK THE LINE (Logo), in Mexico; or INDECOPI’s refusal to register FUCK STATUS QUO (Logo), in Peru; yet contrasting with decisions in some other jurisdictions, such as Chile, where INAPI granted a registration for BACK THE FUCK UP SHOW (Logo), Argentina, where INPI granted a registration for FUCKLAND; or Brazil, where INPI granted a registration for FUCK (Logo).

It is also contrasting with the United States, where the matter of scandalous and immoral trademarks in connection with a trademark application for FUCT, reached the Supreme Court, which held that  the Lanham Act’s ban on immoral or scandalous trademarks violates the constitutional right to free speech, under the First Amendment.

Click here to request a copy of SIC’s decision or in case you wish any additional information.