The Lanham Act prevents applicants from registering any of a number of words and devices as marks, including immoral or scandalous matter and flags or coats of arms. In terms of the latter exclusion, such a prohibition makes sense; without it, for example, any merchant could use an American flag to hawk goods and services regardless of whether they had any affiliation with the U.S. government.
But what about designs that used to be part of national flags and, once upon a time symbolized a nation, but are no longer? As the recent example of South Sudan shows, new boundaries – and nations – can emerge at any time, fundamentally changing the maps we use and the countries of which such nations used to be a part.
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