Jack Daniel's Trademark in the U.S. Supreme Court

Jack Daniel's whisky manufacturers are not happy with a dog toy company that produced something called Bad Spaniels that, it says, infringes on their trademark with a similar name and shape. NPR's Nina Totenberg has the story here. 4 min., transcript available.

Trademark --Thom Browne versus Adidas

A jury in Manhattan recently found that the designer Thom Browne was not guilty of infringing upon the three stripes Adidas uses in its logo. Brown, who uses four bars in his designs, says his victory was also one for other independent designers. NPR's Morning Edition has the story here. 3 min. 49 sec. transcript available.

More on The Slants and Free Speech in the Supreme Court

NPR’s planet money has a story about the effort of a group called The Slants to obtain a trademark for their name. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused to give its stamp of approval, saying it was disparaging to people of Asian descent.. The group, composed of Asian Americans, is invoking their right of free speech and their case will be decided soon by the Supreme Court. 2O min, transcript available.

More About "The Slants"

NPR's Nina Totenburg presents the case about the rock group The Slants (Lee v. Tam) on All Things Considered just after oral arguments on Wednesday. You can find the report here. 3 min 58 sec, transcript available. You can also find the transcript of the oral arguments, but not the recording, here. Lots of conditionals ("Could the government...") and hypotheticals ("if it was based on viewpoint..." "If our client had sought to register... "Let's say you had a government program..." "If you were to use...").
The recording of the oral arguments and a very useful transcript that scrolls above the recording line can be found here.