Dance-Rock Band The Slants Have Name Rejected On Racial Grounds

Oregon-bred self-described "Chinatown dance-rock" outfit The Slants have taken a trademark battle over their name to federal court after repeated rejections by the US Patent & Trademark Office on racial grounds.

Band founder Simon Tam (who performs under the name Simon Young) has previously applied to trademark the name twice before, in 2010 and 2011, but was rejected — by the same trademark examiner — on the basis that "a substantial portion of the Asian-American community would be offended".

"I consider the name a point of cultural pride," Tam said of the struggle in a statement. "One of the first things people say is that we have slanted eyes. I thought, 'What a great way to reclaim that stereotype and take ownership of it,' and, in doing so, take away the power from those who try to use it as a term of hate.

"Our band uses our name to refer to our perspectives and experiences in life as people of colour. It's our 'slant', if you will — and we choose to empower others that way."

Although government regulators have told Tam that he and his bandmates are entitled to use the band name 'The Slants' without the trademark, the frontman says, "To me, that's like saying you can still ride the bus, you've just got to sit in the back."

"You can have the name, but have fewer rights than anyone else. That only made me want to fight even harder."

Tam is no stranger to publicly addressing contentious and confronting issues, having performed a handful of talks at TEDx functions on racism, the power of language, and his band's face-off with the patent office, and has a slew of university campus appearances up his sleeve in the coming months.

It's little wonder, though, as Tam paints an erudite, intelligent picture of himself in canvassing the perceived absurdities in denying The Slants their trademark but granting such license to organisations such as the Washington Redskins, for example.

"[This disagreement] has made international headlines, especially as people try to understand why the Trademark Office would make such a big deal of it despite issuing out trademark registrations to groups like N.W.A, Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, or hundreds of other non-Asian trademarks for the term 'slant'," Tam said in a statement.

"The actions of the trademark office were clearly racist — but they continue to defend their decision because they forgot what racism actually means.

"For marginalised communities, such as Asian-Americans, reappropriation can be a powerful tool to fight systemic racism, and that's what The Slants is doing with our name."

The band's most recent release is 2012 full-length The Yellow Album; check out a cut from that record, Sour Love, below, then read a heartfelt Facebook post from Tam about his band's struggle against the patent office after the clip.