The case, a trademark dispute, pitted Jack Daniel’s against Bad Spaniels Silly Squeakers, which looks like the distiller’s distinctive bottle and adds potty humor.
The justices differed about whether the toy, shaped like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, violated the distiller’s trademark rights or was protected by the First Amendment.
The dark growth, fed by alcohol vapors from barrels of aging Jack Daniel’s whiskey, has coated homes, cars, patio furniture and road signs in a sooty crust, residents said. One woman is suing Lincoln County.
The justices have agreed to hear a trademark dispute with First Amendment overtones involving a dog toy’s bathroom humor and a distinctive whiskey bottle.