Messages
5,432
Reaction score
0
In Landmark Decision, U.S. Patent Office Cancels Trademark For Redskins Football Team

By Travis Waldron Updated: June 18, 2014 at 12:57 pm

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled six federal trademark registrations for the name of the Washington Redskins, ruling that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans” and thus cannot be trademarked under federal law that prohibits the protection of offensive or disparaging language.

The U.S. PTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board issued a ruling in the case, brought against the team by plaintiff Amanda Blackhorse, Wednesday morning.

“We decide, based on the evidence properly before us, that these registrations must be cancelled because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered,” the board wrote in its opinion, which is here. A brief explanation of how the Board reached its decision is here.

“The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board agreed with our clients that the team’s name and trademarks disparage Native Americans. The Board ruled that the Trademark Office should never have registered these trademarks in the first place,” Jesse Witten, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, said in a press release. “We presented a wide variety of evidence – including dictionary definitions and other reference works, newspaper clippings, movie clips, scholarly articles, expert linguist testimony, and evidence of the historic opposition by Native American groups – to demonstrate that the word ‘redskin’ is an ethnic slur.”

“I am extremely happy that the [Board] ruled in our favor,” Blackhorse said in a statement. “It is a great victory for Native Americans and for all Americans. We filed our petition eight years ago and it has been a tough battle ever since. I hope this ruling brings us a step closer to that inevitable day when the name of the Washington football team will be changed. The team’s name is racist and derogatory. I’ve said it before and I will say it again – if people wouldn’t dare call a Native American a ‘redskin’ because they know it is offensive, how can an NFL football team have this name?”

The Trial and Appeals Board rescinded the team’s trademark protections in a 1999 ruling that was part of a case filed in 1992. A federal court later overturned the ruling on appeal due to a technicality that the plaintiffs say has been fixed in this most recent case.

The team will appeal the case, according to a statement from its attorney, and it will be able to keep its trademark protection during appeal. Further, losing the trademark would not force the team to change its name — as the PTO pointed out in its fact sheet about the case, the Trial and Appeal Board “does not have jurisdiction in a cancellation proceeding to require that a party cease use of a mark, but only to determine whether a mark may continue to be registered.”

The absence of federal trademark protection, however, could limit the team’s legal protections to state and common laws when others use their name, so others can’t just start marketing new “Redskins” merchandise. Still, it could potentially cost the team — and, because of the NFL’s revenue-sharing model, other NFL teams — money. In the previous case, the team’s attorneys argued that losing trademark protections and the exclusive right to their brand would cause “every imaginable loss you can think of.” For that reason, targeting the trademark has long been thought of by opponents of the team’s name as the easiest avenue to changing it.

The team is confident that it will prevail on appeal.

“We’ve seen this story before. And just like last time, today’s ruling will have no effect at all on the team’s ownership of and right to use the Redskins name and logo,” team attorney Bob Raskopf said in the statement. “We are confident we will prevail once again, and that the Trial and Appeal Board’s divided ruling will be overturned on appeal. This case is no different than an earlier case.”
 

VTA

UDFA
Messages
2,489
Reaction score
306
Anything is a 'slur' if you want it to be.
Where does the folly end?

0t.jpg


340x.jpg
 

VTA

UDFA
Messages
2,489
Reaction score
306
A lot of people here imply that Jon is, shall we say intellectually challenged, so therefore 'Jon' is now a slur.
I demand the user _CENSORED_ 88 be forced to change his user name. It's the right thing to do.
 

VTA

UDFA
Messages
2,489
Reaction score
306
Vietnamese Tit Assault.
The Gooks are all worked up over it.
 

NoShame

UDFA
Messages
2,797
Reaction score
0
A lot of people here imply that Jon is, shall we say intellectually challenged, so therefore 'Jon' is now a slur.
I demand the user _CENSORED_ 88 be forced to change his user name. It's the right thing to do.

I'll second that.

Also, if I was Snyder I would just change the fucking name already. All this bullshit they're going thru and the distraction it will be all season is not worth it. Use this opportunity to create something positive and get some excitement going in the fanbase.
 

jeebus

UDFA
Messages
1,650
Reaction score
0
Most political administration ever. You won a damn election, that doesn't turn American into a Denocratic fiefdom.
 

Jon88

Pro Bowler
Messages
19,523
Reaction score
0
I remember how some newspaper refused to use the word "terrorist" after 9/11 because it was offensive.

Like a label is more offensive than blowing yourself up and killing people.
 

VTA

UDFA
Messages
2,489
Reaction score
306
Most political administration ever. You won a damn election, that doesn't turn American into a Denocratic fiefdom.

Takes attention away from it's failures. They spent 8 years of a Republican administration screaming like brats being dragged through a supermarket, claiming those assholes were doing what they eventually did. e.g. spy on us, abuse their agencies to target rivals, restrict freedoms, etc, etc, etc.

As bad as Bush was, he had been as petulant as this bag of crap.
 
Messages
4,604
Reaction score
0
Fugitive caught after joking to local newspaper about Redskins name
Brett Smiley
FOX Sports
JUL 08, 2014 9:46a ET

You can run and hide but can't comment to papers about the controversy.

A 25-year-old student who spent one month on the run after jumping bail in New York on drug and drunk driving charges got caught by police after his name and photo surfaced in a local newspaper with a quip about the Redskins team name controversy.

According to a CBS DC report, Jacob Close, when approached by a reporter for the Enterprise Press in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, where he attends school, the then-fugitive said he didn't see anything wrong with the team's name and joked, "I think they should keep the same name, but change the mascot to a potato."

Apparently Close thought the joke was amusing and wanted credit, so he agreed to let the paper print his name and photo along with it.

Turns out police read newspapers too; they found him at Bloomsburg University's recreation center. I don't know how he planned to continue attending school while on the lam, but we're talking about a guy who put his photo in the papers while hiding from police.

Anyhow, Close is back in custody, where he'll have plenty of time to mull all sorts of things like the justice system and NFL mascots.
 

Doomsday

High Plains Drifter
Messages
21,397
Reaction score
3,792
Fugitive caught after joking to local newspaper about Redskins name
Brett Smiley
FOX Sports
JUL 08, 2014 9:46a ET

You can run and hide but can't comment to papers about the controversy.

A 25-year-old student who spent one month on the run after jumping bail in New York on drug and drunk driving charges got caught by police after his name and photo surfaced in a local newspaper with a quip about the Redskins team name controversy.

According to a CBS DC report, Jacob Close, when approached by a reporter for the Enterprise Press in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, where he attends school, the then-fugitive said he didn't see anything wrong with the team's name and joked, "I think they should keep the same name, but change the mascot to a potato."

Apparently Close thought the joke was amusing and wanted credit, so he agreed to let the paper print his name and photo along with it.

Turns out police read newspapers too; they found him at Bloomsburg University's recreation center. I don't know how he planned to continue attending school while on the lam, but we're talking about a guy who put his photo in the papers while hiding from police.

Anyhow, Close is back in custody, where he'll have plenty of time to mull all sorts of things like the justice system and NFL mascots.
Darwin Award winner of the week.
 

NoDak

UDFA
Messages
2,633
Reaction score
0
Darwin Award winner of the week.
The guy only got himself arrested. Stupid, yes. But not enough to qualify for the Darwin Award.

The Darwin Award recognizes individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own (unnecessarily foolish) actions. - Wikipedia
 

Doomsday

High Plains Drifter
Messages
21,397
Reaction score
3,792
The guy only got himself arrested. Stupid, yes. But not enough to qualify for the Darwin Award.

The Darwin Award recognizes individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own (unnecessarily foolish) actions. - Wikipedia
Attempted DA winner!
 
Messages
355
Reaction score
0
I LOVE IT!!! Fuck Danny Dickweed and Foreskins. LOL

The way I look at it, the original Foreskins owner (George Marshall) tried to block the Dallas Cowboys from being admitted into the NFL ~54 years ago. Now his shitty, racial insulting team name is being forced to change as karmic payback to his treachery!!

:jerkoff

Just one more instance of proof there is a God and he will make all things right in due time. :bow
 
Top Bottom