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After Supreme Court Decision, People Race To Trademark Racially Offensive Words

Racially offensive trademark applications are piling up at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Supreme Court decided last month the federal government couldn't ban trademarks simply because they're disparaging. NPR's Planet Money team talks to some of the people trying to trademark racial slurs.

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Corrected: July 27, 2017 at 12:00 AM EDT
In this report, we say that a few days after Curtis Bordenave filed an application to register "Nigga" as a trademark, Steve Maynard's Snowflake Enterprises LLC applied to do the same thing. In fact, Bordenave's first application to trademark the word was filed on June 19, 2017, the day of the Supreme Court decision. Later that same day, Maynard's Snowflake Enterprises filed an application. Bordenave filed a second application to register "Nigga" on June 19. Then on June 27, Maynard's Snowflake Enterprises filed two more applications to register the word.
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Ailsa Chang is an award-winning journalist who hosts All Things Considered along with Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, and Mary Louise Kelly. She landed in public radio after practicing law for a few years.