Court denies Redskins in trademark fight

A federal judge in Virginia has upheld last year’s decision to cancel the Washington Redskins’s trademarks on grounds that the team’s moniker and logo are disparaging to Native Americans.
 
In a decision Wednesday, Judge Gerald Bruce sided with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision last year to strip the team of its trademarks. He argues that the decision doesn’t bar the team from using those trademarks in marketing or fans from wearing those images.
 
He also references the Supreme Court’s recent decision that upheld Texas’s right to reject a Confederate flag license plate, making a similar argument that the government has a right to “determine the contents and limits of programs that it creates and manages.”
 
“The meaning of the marks is one that ‘may disparage’ a substantial composite of Native Americans,” he wrote in the order originally published by the National Law Journal.
 
Bruce added that testimony from “prominent Native American individuals and leaders” helped prove that the trademark could be offensive.
 
While last June’s ruling by the Patent and Trademark Office allowed the team to keep its trademarks until its appeals, the district court ruling orders the office to “schedule the cancellation of the registration” for six trademarks. If the team appeals, it could retain the rights to the trademarks until that process is over.
 
If those marks are cancelled, the team will lose its registered trademark as well as its “legal presumptions of ownership,” according to a fact sheet released by the office after the June decision. It adds that the team will not lose all of its legal rights to the trademark, as federal registration is an optional step that only grants additional rights. 
 
The Redskins have not yet commented on the decision.
 
The team’s logos and name have been a source of significant controversy, as Native Americans charge that the term is a slur against their people. That battle has also made its way onto Capitol Hill, since the team plays just outside Washington’s borders.  
 
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) called on the National Football League to force a name change back in 2014, as did a group of 50 Democratic senators, including Cantwell.