The Washington football team has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria contesting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision on the team's trademark registration, according to Ian Shapira of the Washington Post. Washington is suing five Native Americans who won the case on June 18, and now want the opportunity to defend the name to convince the office that the team name is not a racially charged slur.
Washington NFL team files lawsuit to try to overturn trademark decision
Washington is attempting to get the decision on its trademark overturned.
Amanda Blackhorse, one of the five Native Americans being sued, released a statement following the filing of the lawsuit on Thursday. She says that the effort is “doomed to fail,” and that Washington is simply seeking to “prolong this litigation, which has already gone on for 22 years.”
Blackhorse goes on to say that various dictionaries say that the team name is a term used in “a disparaging way to refer to Native Americans.” Her full statement is below:
I understand that The Washington R*dsk*ns have sued me today in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking to reverse the recent decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelling six of the team’s existing trademark registrations. This effort is doomed to fail, but if they want to prolong this litigation which has already gone on for 22 years, I guess they have that prerogative. In June, the TTAB decided for the second time that the team’s trademarks were not eligible for registration under federal trademark law because they contain content that ‘may disparage’ Native Americans or bring them into contempt or disrepute. In addition, on at least 12 occasions since 1992, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has refused to grant new registrations because the team’s name is disparaging, including seven applications submitted by the team and one application submitted by the NFL. Whatever ‘evidence’ the team relies upon has already been rejected time after time after time by the USPTO.
Open any dictionary you want - Random House, Merriam-Webster, American Heritage - and you will find a usage note explaining that the term is a disparaging way to refer to Native Americans. The National Congress of American Indians, countless Native American tribes and individual Native Americans, have protested. President Obama, other political leaders, media figures and Americans of all backgrounds, beliefs and ages, have also spoken out that it is time for the team name to change.
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? We know that time is on our side for a change in the team’s name, and we are confident we will win once again at this stage of the litigation.
For the time being, the trademark is still in effect, and will be until Washington goes through the entirety of the appeals process and fails to convince officials to overturn their decision. If Washington is unsuccessful with this, it would not mean the team is forced to change the name; it would simply mean that it would be exceedingly difficult to fight infringement and knock-off merchandise.
The others being sued are Phillip Glover, Marcus Briggs-Cloud, Jillian Pappan and Courtney Tsotigh, according to the report. The next move is on Washington. The team will have to present whatever evidence it can in support of its argument.
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