Federal Judge Orders Cancellation of Redskins' Trademark Registrations
 

Federal judge orders cancellation of Redskins’ trademark registrations
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Who is open to changing the Redskins’ name?
View Photos PHOTOS | More and more people are saying the NFL franchise for Washington should change its name. Here are a few of them.
By Ian Shapira July 8 at 9:43 AM
The Washington Redskins lost their biggest legal and public relations battle yet in the war over their name after a federal judge in Northern Virginia on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of the NFL team’s federal trademark registrations, which have been opposed for decades by many Native Americans who feel the moniker disparages their race.

The cancellation doesn’t go into effect until the Redskins have exhausted the appeals process in the federal court system. But even if the Redskins ultimately take the case to the Supreme Court and lose, the team can still use “Redskins” and seek trademark protections under state law. The team has argued, however, that a cancellation of its trademarks could taint its brand and remove legal benefits that would protect against copycat entrepreneurs.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee’s decision affirmed an earlier ruling by the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Last year, the appeal board declared in a 2-to-1 vote that the team’s moniker is offensive to Native Americans and therefore ineligible under the Lanham Act for status in the federal trademark registry. The appeal board had been petitioned by five Native American activists, including Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo Nation member from Arizona who is well known for leading protests against the team outside stadiums wherever it plays.


[U.S. patent office cancels Redskins trademark registrations, saying name is disparaging to Native Americans]

The Redskins tried to overturn the appeal board’s ruling in August by suing Blackhorse and the four other Native American activists in federal court in Alexandria, Va. The team argued that the Lanham Act conflicted with its First Amendment rights. It also contended that Blackhorse didn’t prove that enough Native Americans opposed the name at the time the team registered its trademarks in 1967, 1974, 1978 and 1990.

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Where notable people stand on the Redskins’ name
A Washington Redskins spokesman said the team is reviewing the decision and considering its legal options.

Jesse Witten, one of the attorneys for the Native Americans, celebrated the judge’s ruling.


“This is a huge victory. Getting this ruling from a U.S. District judge is a watershed event,” Witten said, adding that he doesn’t expect the war to be over anytime soon. “The team has been fighting this case so hard and leaving no stone unturned and scorching every square inch of earth that it’s hard to imagine they will not appeal.”

The Redskins have been waging a legal war to defend their federal trademark registrations for more than two decades. The fight began in 1992, when a group of Native Americans led by Suzan Shown Harjo filed a petition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to strip the team’s name of its registrations. Seven years later, the panel ruled in Harjo’s favor.

But the Redskins appealed in federal court, winning on the grounds that Harjo and the other Native Americans didn’t produce enough evidence showing the name was insulting and that they waited too long after turning 18 years old — legally adults — to claim the name is offensive.

Before that case was lost, Blackhorse and four other young Native Americans from Florida, Utah and Oklahoma had filed their own petition with the trademark appeal board in August 2006.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...d55_story.html

I would make a cake for the Redskins if they ask me

Since the federal government is going the route of censorship and banning what it deems offensive. I got a whole list of shit I wanna throw on top of this steamy pile.

I wonder if black people are offended by the name "blackfoot" indians. They should sue the tribe for such an offensive name.

Nothing was censored or banned. Did you even TRY reading the article?

So the end game isn't to try and force a name change?

You said "the federal government is going the route of censorship and banning what it deems offensive." Maybe you don't know what some of those words mean.

Maybe, but they're just following the law. Trademark law "expressly prohibits registration of disparaging terms".

I don't believe the Redskins name is necessarily disparaging. They seem to treat the imagined subjects of their nickname with respect.

Why is it they don't find the name Oklahoma offensive or disparaging?

Maybe because these terms were made up and used by the Indians as a way to identify each other to ****ing begin with

I need to get a Redskins jersey with a Confederate flag embroidered on the back for maximum trolling.

Al and Jessie is on the way

Its a name that is at least mildly offensive. I'm in the Carlin bandwagon of its just a word, but I understand why Indians wouldn't like it.

I agree with Facebook that they should drop Washington from their name because it offends me.

I suggest they change their name to the Washington Whooping Cranes.

The Washington Wallabys!!

Restore sanity to the US, please.

This is just the beginning folks in this overly PC World we live in.....

The Washington Wankers

what is disparaging?

"Washington Redskins, go **** yourself."

http://image-cdn.zap2it.com/images/c...18-preview.jpg

Now that the trademark has been cancelled, they'll essentially be forced to change the name. Otherwise, all sorts of non-NFL approved merchandise will be for sale at local shops and of course, the internet, which will put a dent in Washington's (and the NFL's) revenue stream.

I'd just change it "Reds".

Ha!

What? Holy shit this dumb as ****. Do you even understand context? Let alone the historical significance of the term redskin?

Didn't they just do a poll here in the last year and 90 something % of Native Americans didn't care that the name Redskins is used?

I've heard more whites bitching about it than Native Americans.

Totally something a whiteskin would say.

It's always curious when white people and Christians get offended, yet those same people think that African Americans, Mexicans and anyone different from them should "Just get over it".

Why do some people on here get upset over the idea that the Redskins will be changed? They're not your team. They can become the Washington Man****ers for all I care.

Also, where's Rain Man?

The Ermines dream is NOT dead

Because people on Chiefsplanet get upset by ANY change to the world in which they live.

It's never right to be on the wrong side of history and this is definitely one of those times.

IIRC the 2 broads making the biggest stink about the Redskins name said something to the effect that the Chiefs name should be changed as well. I believe there was a thread on it somewhere in the bowels of the planet.

Seriously. These mother****ers bitch more than the mother****ers they bitch about.

To quote my dawg Pablo, or is it Brock? I swear those two are the same dude..

"The world around me is changing and I'm scared!"

I think it's more than that.

The Cardinals have also been around the NFL forever, even though they've changed cities a handful of times. If the Bidwells went crazy and were like, "We're sick of being the Cardinals, so we're getting a new name and a new brand," would anybody care?

I mean, some people would find it interesting, and it'd definitely be worth talking about, but would anybody get FURIOUSLY upset the way they do when talking about the Redskins being forced with a name change?

What's the difference between the Cardinals in this hypothetical and the Redskins? They're not teams you care about. Why go on this penis-pounding tirade where you ask ridiculous questions like, "What's so offensive about 'Redskins?"

I think it's the fact that it is the government that is telling me it's offensive. I understand why some find it offensive I just don't need the government to tell me it is.

If Snyder wants to change the name of his team then I'm all in but it shouldn't be forced.

LMAO
You guys read what theisman had to say?


http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/07/joe-...caitlyn-jenner

He's my mult.

The Washington Lairs

The Washington Lobbyist

The Washington Corporate one who sucks the peniss


any of those work for you?

Well isn't that special

I don't believe that ermines live in the Washington DC area.

Neither do indigenous people.

They were there at one time tho. #datgenocidetho

I always thought they should just go with the Hogs. Fits their fans, and also fits DC with the pork reference.

So the article linked in the OP shows a black man in an article about alleged racism towards Native Americans....

I'm so confused

I know, it makes no sense. Get a load of this...some white people were against slavery and some non-Jews are bothered when they see anti-Semitism. Some heteros don't agree with discrimination against gays.
Crazy world.

JFC, just please STFU already.

Do you have a graph that projects this information? I don't really believe it otherwise.

I agree. I think the Royals will win their series against the Blue Jays.

I am one of the few people that wouldn't give a shit if KC changed their name.

We could argue 1st round QB's at "Stallionsplanet" or "Fountainsplanet".

That's putting it mildly

"Cultural resettlement" #leftspeakUS

Not so fast

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...-nfl-case.html

ROFL The PC Pussification of America continues. To be continued I'm sure...

I whore a Redskins t shirt last night