Washington Redskins appeal to reclaim trademarks on name

RICHMOND, Va., July 16 (UPI) — Lawyers representing the NFL’s Washington Redskins filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court as they seek the return of several trademarks on the team’s name.

The appeal will be heard in federal court in Richmond, Va. in the fall to contest a ruling that revoked their federal trademark after the U.S. Patent office called the name “Redskins” offensive and a racial slur.

The team was able to successfully overturn a similar ruling made in 1999. The team also argues that the Fifth Amendment prevents illegally taking away property, such as the trademark, without compensation.

With their current appeal the team argues that it’s unfair for the government to hold the right to cancel the registration of a trademark name that is deemed disparaging to a group of people based on decades old beliefs.

“The government thus cancelled the Team’s registrations for supposedly disparaging Native Americans in 1967-1990, even though the name has not offended the overwhelming majority of the Native Americans from at least 2004-present,” the team’s attorneys wrote.

The team cites a May poll published by the Washington Post, which showed that nine in 10 Native Americans do not find the name Redskins offensive.

Part of their strategy in contesting the 1946 Lanham Act, which prevents trademarks of potentially offensive names, is to align themselves with an Asian American rock band named “the Slants” whose trademark was also declined under the act.

The band’s founder Simon Tam argued against this tactic in a blog post from April citing several differences in the cases, including that the owners of the team are not part of the “referenced group” of the name, and that “The Slants” is not an inherent racial slur.

” ‘Slant’ means a number of different things and the racial connotations are so obscure, nearly every major dictionary publisher removed the racial slur from its list of possible definitions. ‘Redskins’ always has been used as a racial slur and has a long history of demeaning Native Americans. ‘Slant’ has not. It has been and is a commonly used “neutral” term (according to dictionary experts, it was obscure even during the height of its racial use in 1920-1940),” he wrote.

The team’s trademark also remains protected throughout the appeal process and the loss of trademarks does not grant permission for anyone to produce and sell unauthorized merchandise, as the name and logo are protected under other trademarks and copyrights.