The opinion concerns an appeal by Erik Brunetti to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding the refusal to register the word "FUCK" as a trademark. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (Board) had previously affirmed the examining attorney's decision, citing that the word failed to function as a trademark because it is a widely-used, all-purpose expression that consumers would not perceive as a source identifier for goods and services. The Court of Appeals vacated and remanded the Board's decision, arguing that while the Board's factual findings regarding the word's ubiquity were sound, it failed to articulate a clear and consistent standard for determining when such "all-purpose word marks" can be registered, especially in light of other similar words and phrases that have been successfully trademarked. A dissenting opinion, however, asserts that the word's pervasive and varied use inherently prevents it from functioning as a source identifier, and that further guidance from the Board is unnecessary to reach this conclusion.

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