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Simon Tam serves as the lead singer of the rock group The Slants, whose members are Asian-Americans. He chose the name in an effort to reclaim the term and drain its denigrating force as a derogatory reference to Asian persons. The group has incorporated childhood slurs into its lyrics and titled albums including The Yellow Album and Slanted Eyes, Slanted Hearts. Tam filed an application with the Patent and Trademark Office seeking registration of THE SLANTS as a trademark. The PTO examining attorney rejected the application after applying a two-part analysis and concluding that a substantial composite of persons of Asian descent would find the mark offensive. The attorney cited dictionary definitions labeling the term as derogatory and evidence that the band's name had prompted cancellation of a performance along with negative comments from online readers. Tam appealed the denial first to the examining attorney and then to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which upheld the refusal. Tam then brought the case before the Federal Circuit. Sitting en banc, that court reversed the Board. The Government petitioned for certiorari, and the Supreme Court granted review.

Defendant Christina McLean owns the west 35 feet of lot 86 in the Green Lawn subdivision at the northeast corner of Collingwood avenue and Second boulevard in Detroit, where she and her husband John A. McLean reside in a dwelling house fronting Collingwood avenue. In 1891 the subdivision was platted with lots on Collingwood avenue intended exclusively for residence purposes, and all 91 such lots now have residences erected on them. Robert J. and Joseph R. McLaughlin, who owned the Collingwood avenue lots, conveyed several groups of lots in 1892 and 1893 subject to restrictions that only residences costing at least $2,500 could be built and that they must front on the avenue. The McLaughlins conveyed lot 86 to predecessors in defendants' title by a deed dated September 7, 1893, that mentioned no restrictions. In 1910 or 1911 John McLean purchased the lot on contract, completed the partly built dwelling already present, and has since occupied it with his wife. At the time of purchase McLean reviewed an abstract showing the subdivision and its many lots, observed the expensive residences on the street all conforming to a uniform residential character, and was informed by his grantor that the lot carried no restrictions. The McLeans started to erect a gasoline filling station at the rear end of their lot. They and their contractor were enjoined by decree from doing so. The defendants appealed that decree to the Supreme Court of Michigan.

In 1953, William T. Graham received U.S. Patent No. 2,627,798 for a spring clamp device designed to absorb shock in agricultural plows when the shank strikes an obstruction in rocky soil. The device features a hinge connecting the plow shank to the frame, with the hinge plate positioned below the frame and the shank bolted to it, allowing greater flexing along the shank's length compared to prior designs. Graham had previously obtained U.S. Patent No. 2,493,811 in 1950 for a similar but differently arranged clamp. Separately, in 1959, Baxter I. Scoggin, Jr., received U.S. Patent No. 2,870,943, assigned to Cook Chemical Co., for a plastic finger-operated sprayer with a hold-down overcap for use on insecticide bottles. The device integrates a pump sprayer with an overcap that screws onto a collar, forming a seal above the threads via a rib and shoulder while leaving space between the overcap and container cap, enabling automated assembly and leak-proof shipment. These patents became the subject of infringement and declaratory judgment actions. In the Graham case, the Fifth Circuit had upheld the patent's validity in an earlier proceeding. The Eighth Circuit invalidated it in the suit against John Deere Co. In the Calmar and Colgate-Palmolive cases against Cook Chemical, the Eighth Circuit upheld the Scoggin patent after the District Court sustained it. The prior art included Graham's own earlier patent and the Glencoe clamp device. For the sprayer, the prior art included patents such as Lohse No. 2,119,884, Mellon No. 2,586,687, and Livingstone No. 2,715,480. The Patent Office had examined the applications, with Graham amending claims and Scoggin relying on the sealing features after initial rejections. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in these cases to address the application of the obviousness standard under the 1952 Patent Act.

Qualitex Company has used a special shade of green-gold color on the press pads it makes and sells to dry cleaning firms for use on dry cleaning presses since the 1950s. Jacobson Products Company, a rival firm, began selling its own press pads colored in a similar green-gold shade to dry cleaning firms in 1989. In 1991 Qualitex registered the special green-gold color on press pads with the Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark under Registration No. 1,633,711 dated February 5, 1991. Qualitex subsequently added a trademark infringement count to an unfair competition claim under the Lanham Act in a lawsuit it had already filed against Jacobson. The District Court ruled in Qualitex's favor in the action. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit set aside the judgment in Qualitex's favor on the trademark infringement claim. Courts of Appeals had differed on whether color alone could qualify as a trademark, with some circuits imposing an absolute prohibition and others allowing registration in particular circumstances. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in 1994 to address the division among the circuits.