Via LA Times:
The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether The Slants, an Asian American rock band from Portland, Ore., can trademark its name despite the government’s objection that it is an offensive term.
This clash between free speech and trademark protection has drawn wide attention in part because the Washington Redskins football team is locked in the same dispute.
The court also said it will decide a free-speech dispute involving fees charged to merchants who accept credit cards. Under challenge are laws in California, New York, Florida, Texas and several other states that forbid retailers from disclosing the surcharge to customers who use a charge card.
Retailers challenging these laws say that revealing the fees to customers would put pressure on the credit card companies to lower them. “Because credit-card companies have been so successful in hiding the cost of credit from consumers, U.S. merchants pay some of the highest swipe fees in the world, about 3% of every credit-card purchase, or over $50 billion a years in fees,” they said in their appeal.