Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/16pdf/15-1293_1o13.pdf
Page Number: 9.0

Cite as:  582 U. S. ____ (2017) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

law protection, either by state common law or state regis-
tration”  and  “[i]n  the  vast  majority  of  situations,  federal 
and  state  trademark  law  peacefully  coexist”);  id.,  §22:1
(discussing state trademark registration systems). 

Federal  registration,  however,  “confers  important  legal
rights  and  benefits  on  trademark  owners  who  register
their marks.”   B&B  Hardware, 575 U. S., at  ___ (slip op., 
at 3) (internal quotation marks omitted).  Registration on 
the principal register (1) “serves as ‘constructive notice of
the  registrant’s  claim  of  ownership’  of  the  mark,”  ibid. 
(quoting 15 U. S. C. §1072); (2) “is ‘prima facie evidence of 
the validity of the registered mark and of the registration
of the mark, of the owner’s ownership of the mark, and of 
the  owner’s  exclusive  right  to  use  the  registered  mark  in
commerce  on  or  in  connection  with  the  goods  or  services
specified  in  the  certificate,’ ”  B & B  Hardware,  575  U. S. 
___  (slip  op.,  at  3)  (quoting  §1057(b));  and  (3)  can  make  a 
mark “ ‘incontestable’ ” once a mark has been registered for
five  years,”  ibid.  (quoting  §§1065,  1115(b));  see  Park  ’N 
Fly,  469  U. S.,  at  193.    Registration  also  enables  the
trademark holder “to stop the importation into the United
States  of  articles  bearing  an  infringing  mark.”  3  Mc-
Carthy §19:9, at 19–38; see 15 U. S. C. §1124. 

C 
The  Lanham  Act  contains  provisions  that  bar  certain
trademarks  from  the  principal  register.    For  example,  a 
trademark cannot be registered if it is “merely descriptive or 
deceptively misdescriptive” of goods, §1052(e)(1), or if it is so
similar  to  an  already  registered  trademark  or  trade  name 
that it is “likely . . . to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, 
or to deceive,” §1052(d). 

At issue in this case is one such provision, which we will
call “the disparagement clause.”  This provision prohibits the 
registration  of  a  trademark  “which  may  disparage  . . .  per-
sons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols,