The Washington Redskins had their trademark registration cancelled by the Patent and Trademark Office today, as the office declared the trademark “disparaging to Native Americans.” As such, pending an appeal, the Washington Redskins will no longer be able to sue to protect its logo, namesake, or trade dress (the color scheme, styling of lettering, etc.)
The decision, a full copy of which is linked below, comes as a result of a petition to revoke the registration of the marks by Amanda Blackhorse essentially echoing the American Indian Movement’s (AIM) #NotYourMascot campaign.
Applying the two-step standard, the Appeals Board found that
the registered marks when used in connection with professional football meaning Native Americans, [and that the Washington Redskins’] argument regarding“secondary meaning” in the sense that it has “a seondary or alternate meaning”denoting a football team, is not persuasive in that the “secondary meaning” has not stripped the word “redskins” of its “ethnic” meaning.
Many have criticized this move as being “thin-skinned” P.C. police trying to interfere with the rights of the Washington Redskins to keep its longstanding namesake. However, the law in this area, much like the prohibitions against enforcement of contracts for murder or slavery, prohibits certain contracts or transactions that are against the public interest. Disparaging a race and seeking protection of the exclusive right to do so is one of those transactions.
Rather than fight this, as the Washington Redskins have indicated they will, they ought to change the name, in my opinion, to get the distraction out of the way so they can focus on more important things: losing football games.
Go Cowboys.