A federal appeals court is declaring a gag order that was imposed on the backers of a Comic-Con convention to be an unconstitutional infringement of speech. A San Diego federal judge had prohibited the organizers of Salt Lake Comic Con from taking to social media like Twitter, Facebook, and even the event's website to discuss being sued for allegedly infringing the "Comic-Con" trademark.

"Petitioners assert that the court-ordered prior restraints on their speech violate the First Amendment. We agree," the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

The gag order was issued as part of an ongoing trademark lawsuit brought by the producers of the San Diego Comic-Con. They sued a competing "Comic-Con" convention for using the unhyphenated form of their trademarked term "Comic-Con" without paying licensing fees. The case raises questions about the legitimacy of the trademark—in particular whether the trademark has become too generic and, hence, a victim to its own pop-culture popularity.

US District Judge Anthony Battaglia had issued a gag order against Dan Farr Productions, the Salt Lake Comic Con producer. The judge ruled that Dan Farr Productions' online campaign about the case could taint the jury pool in an upcoming trial over the trademark. In that trial, Dan Farr Productions will argue that the trademarked phrase cannot sustain its trademark because it has become too generic, just like the words teleprompter, thermos, aspirin, and videotape—all of which fell out of trademark because of "genericide."

"In view of the comments, postings, and discussions initiated by Defendants on their various social media platforms, it is plain to the Court that a serious and imminent threat to a fair trial outweighs the First Amendment rights at stake," Battaglia had ruled (PDF) in July, when issuing the gag order.

Dan Farr Productions asked the 9th Circuit to vacate the order, and the appeals court did so last Thursday. As the appeals court wrote:

San Diego Comic-Con has presented no evidence as to how many, if any, of the approximately 35,200 Twitter followers are registered voters in San Diego and Imperial counties and how many, if any, of the 120,000 attendees of the 2014 Salt Lake Comic Con in Utah are even possibly members of the current San Diego-area jury pool.

No trial date has been set at this time.