1st Amendment Protects Trademark Use, California Federal Judge Rules

Mealey's (June 1, 2022, 1:25 PM EDT) -- LOS ANGELES — Efforts by a self-styled “social innovation consultancy firm” to control the use of the “Be Woke. Vote” trademark fail because the trademark infringement defendants’ use of the phrase is “fundamentally noncommercial,” a federal judge in California ruled May 31 in granting the defendants judgment on the pleadings....