NFL team to lose trademark registration

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The Washington Redskins football club could be stripped of its trademark registration by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

A group of seven prominent Native Americans has been fighting since 1992 to convince the National Football League team to change its name. The U.S. Patent Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board handed down its 145-page decision on April 2. The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the Redskins name cannot be registered because federal regulations prevent "a party from receiving the benefits of registration where a trial might show that [the team's name and logo] hold a substantial segment of the population up to public ridicule."

The judges stated in their ruling that "the registrations will be cancelled in due course."

Early reactions to the decision by team officials indicate the fight is not over and that an appeal may be filed. But Suzan Shown Harjo, a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, was delighted to learn that the six-year-long fight which she has led has produced the desired result.

"The decision validates the views of the overwhelming majority of Native peoples, and an increasingly broad segment of American society, that it is long past time for the Washington professional football team to drop its racist name in favor of one that does not offend any people. This is a stunning victory for all Native peoples," she said. "We are witnessing a mighty thing - society changing and coming to grips with one of the last vestiges of overt, public racism."

The strategy of the group which initiated this action was to persuade the team, through a "pocketbook-incentive lawsuit," to change its name by asking the board to cancel all license registration for the team name. This would have - and now can - make it more difficult for the team to protect its control over the team's name and logo. The aim is to force the team to change its name to one that can be licensed.

John Reiner, the New York City-based attorney for the football club, told Windspeaker the decision represents only a minor inconvenience for his client.

"The registrations merely give procedural rights - which are important - such as a certification that the mark is distinctive, that you can file it with U.S. Customs to stop importation of counterfeits," he said. "It's easier when you get into court to prove that the mark is distinctive, that it has secondary meaning. It does not affect in any way the right of the club to use the mark exclusively and to stop anybody else from infringing. The marks continue to exist. [Registration] makes it easier to prove that there is infringement. You don't need to put in as much proof. It takes away advantages of protection and notice to everyone that it exists so they can't say they didn't know about it. Now, with a very famous mark like this it is not as much of a burden to do to prove all these things, but it still takes away procedural rights on grounds that we don't think are correct. We believe the decision is incorrect and we're going to take it up because we believe it has been decided wrongly."

The lawyer resisted suggestions that the football team refuses to change its name because of the cost and inconvenience. He said the club name was not intended to demean Native people and therefore no one should take offense.

"It's always been used to honor Native Americans. It's always been used respectfully, even the court acknowledges that it's used respectfully. It's an example of all the positive things that one can have: teamwork, perseverance, great athletic skills, loyalty. We think these are all positive attributes and they're used to reflect a positive attitude to honor Native Americans and we think the board's just wrong," he said.

Asked if the team thought it had the right to decide for Native people whether they should or shouldn't be offended by the name, Reiner chose to argue that the petitioners did not have broad support in the Nate communty.

"We think that these petitioners are misguided and we don't think that they're correct," he said. "There is no intention of changing the name of the team or in any way varying its usage."

The other participants in Harjo et al v. Pro Football, Inc. (the formal corporate name of the Washington NFL team) were excited by the board's decision. Vine Deloria, a noted author and professor of history at the University of Colorado, said the team has a history of racial intolerance.

"The federal government made the 'Redskins' let African Americans play on the team nearly four decades ago, and now it has taken another critical step towards ending the team owners' racism," he said. "The federal government was right then and it is right today."

Norbert Hill, Jr., publisher of Winds of Change magazine, hopes the decision will help complete the education of the American public.

"What most people don't realize is that the 'r' word is comparable to the 'n' word," he said. "This is the most pejorative racist name used against us. Most Americans understand this, but the team's owners and the NFL just don't get it."

Reiner said the team is considering which of two appeal options it will undertake.