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ARTICLE · 21 AUGUST 2017

Third Time's The Charm – Or Not

McDermott Will & Emery
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The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit maintained its prior decision, holding that defendants violated the First Amendment when refusing to approve use of university trademarks...

United StatesIntellectual Property
Ulrika Mattsson
Ulrika Mattsson
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The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit maintained its prior decision, holding that defendants violated the First Amendment when refusing to approve use of university trademarks on t-shirts incorporating a marijuana leaf design. Gerlich et al. v. Leath et al., Case No. 16-1518 (8th Cir., June 13, 2017) (Murphy, J) (Loken, J, dissenting in part).

An Iowa State University (ISU) student organization calling itself the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML ISU) produced t-shirts, among other things, to promote the organization's cause. The t-shirts incorporated the university's trademark and a marijuana leaf design. ISU initially approved the use of its trademark, but after receiving backlash, revised its policies on use of its trademarks and later rejected two t-shirt designs submitted by NORML ISU because of the incorporation of the marijuana leaf design. NORML ISU filed a complaint against the administrators of ISU, alleging, among

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