LaRon Charles, Jon Russ and Steven Apilado had been playing softball together in the San Francisco Gay Softball League for years. Their team had competed in the Gay Softball World Series organized by the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA), but had never finished better than fourth place. At the 2008 World Series in Seattle, the team made it all the way to the championship game, when they were shocked to learn that their eligibility to play was being challenged based on a NAGAAA rule limiting the number of non-gay players who could play on a World Series team.

NCLR and the Brooke Oliver Law Group represented the San Francisco Women’s Motorcycle Contingent in an action to register the name “Dykes on Bikes” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO initially rejected the application on the ground that the term “Dykes on Bikes” is disparaging to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.