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[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4902 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4902
To amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to prohibit a private entity from
registering a trademark that is used by the United States Government
for the purposes of Department of Defense or Armed Forces awards, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 24, 2026
Mr. Cruz introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to prohibit a private entity from
registering a trademark that is used by the United States Government
for the purposes of Department of Defense or Armed Forces awards, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Preservation of Rights and Ownership
of Traditional Emblems, Crests, and Tributes Act'' or the ``PROTECT
Act''.
SEC. 2. REGISTRATION OF TRADEMARKS.
(a) In General.--Section 2 of the Act entitled ``An Act to provide
for the registration and protection of trademarks used in commerce, to
carry out the provisions of certain international conventions, and for
other purposes'', approved July 5, 1946 (commonly known as the
``Trademark Act of 1946'') (15 U.S.C. 1052), is amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (f) as subsection (g);
(2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following:
``(f) Is authorized, issued, or controlled by the Government for
the purposes of Department of Defense or Armed Forces awards,
decorations, campaign and service ribbons, or medals, except that such
a mark may be registered at the discretion of the agency or department
of the Government that controls the official use of the mark.''; and
(3) in subsection (g), as so redesignated--
(A) in the first sentence, by striking ``and
(e)(5)'' and inserting ``(e)(5), and (f)''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following: ``Nothing
in subsection (f) may be construed to prohibit the
continued use of a mark on or after the date of
enactment of the Preservation of Rights and Ownership
of Traditional Emblems, Crests, and Tributes Act by any
person or entity, including a nonprofit organization,
if that person or entity was using that mark before
that date of enactment and that use was lawful before
that date of enactment, except that, on and after that
date of enactment, no person or entity other than an
agency or department of the Government described in
that subsection may register such a mark on the
principal register.''.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--The Act entitled ``An Act
to provide for the registration and protection of trademarks used in
commerce, to carry out the provisions of certain international
conventions, and for other purposes'', approved July 5, 1946 (commonly
known as the ``Trademark Act of 1946'') (15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.), is
amended--
(1) in section 1(d)(1) (15 U.S.C. 1051(d)(1)), by striking
``subsections (a) through (e) of section 2'' and inserting
``subsections (a) through (f) of section 2''; and
(2) in section 26 (15 U.S.C. 1094), by striking ``2(f)''
and inserting ``2(g)''.
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