In a landmark decision and major victory for anyone not down with racist shit, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled six federal trademark registrations for the name Washington Redskins this morning. The PTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans” (um, duh?) and therefore cannot be trademarked under Federal Law, which prohibits the protection of offensive or disparaging language.
One of the case’s five plaintiffs and Navajo activist Amanda Blackhore said in a statement that she was “extremely happy that the [Board] ruled in our favor,” calling the ruling “a great victory for Native Americans and for all Americans,” and saying she hopes that the ruling “bring us one step closer to that inevitable day when the name of the Washington football team will be changed.” Her bottom line:
The team’s name is racist and derogatory. I’ve said it before and I will say it again—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?
Or, in the snide words of that venerable "news" source, The Onion: "A new study… confirmed that the name of the Washington Redskins is only offensive if you take any amount of time whatsoever to think about its actual meaning."
Today’s ruling is actually not the first time the Trial and Appeals Board has rescinded the Washington team’s trademark protections. The board ruled in 1992 that the trademarks were disparaging, but a federal court—rather unbelievably—overturned the ruling on a technicality. (Apparently, the "challenge" to the trademark was proffered too long after its first issuing in 1967.)
While the technicality has been tackled (see what we did there) in this more recent case, the team is likely to appeal this ruling again—and will be able to hold onto its trademark protection during the sure-to-be-lengthy appeal process.
There's no doubt that this morning’s ruling is a step in the right direction, but let's be clear: this decision doesn't actually force the Redskins to change the name of the team. What it does affect, however, is the team’s ability to make money from merchandizing. If the ruling holds, team owner Dan Snyder would lose exclusive rights to market the Redskins' name—meaning a huge loss of dolla dolla bills y'all; activists have been using this potential fiscal fallout as the premiere pressure for a name change. (Because not-so-latent bigotry isn't a good enough reason, obviously.)
However as the debate over the team’s name has raged (with even the president weighing in) Snyder has remained resolute on never! changing the name. Asked last year if he would consider altering the Redskin' highly contested moniker were he to lose the federal trademark lawsuit, Snyder was, um, very firm: “We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”
Despite ongoing protests by Native Americans and their supporters expressing discomfort disgust with the name, the owner has gone as far as to call the team name a "badge of honor" in a letter to the Washington Post... right.
Despite Snyder's impressive staunchness, we're more likely to side with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who's said: "The writing is on the wall. It's on the wall in neon, blinking lights. The name will change." Cheers to that.
