Washington Redskins trademark dispute

The Washington Redskins trademark dispute is a legal effort in connection with the Washington Redskins name controversy arising from efforts of those who consider the term "redskin" to be an offensive and disparaging racial slur to prevent the owners of the Washington Redskins football team from being able to assert federal trademark protection for this name. These efforts have primarily been carried forward in two cases brought before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and in lobbying efforts before the United States Congress relating to the trademarks at issue.

The first action in the dispute occurred in 1992, when Suzan Shown Harjo, President of the Morning Star Institute, with six other prominent Native Americans represented by the Dorsey & Whitney law firm of Minneapolis, petitioned the USPTO to cancel the trademark registrations owned by the Redskins' corporate entity of Pro-Football, Inc. They based their lawsuit on the claim that federal trademark law states that certain trademark registrations are not legal if they are "disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous, or disreputable." The legal battle went on for seven years. In 1999 the PTO judges canceled the federal registration of the mark REDSKINS "on the grounds that the subject marks may disparage Native Americans and may bring them into contempt or disrepute." The owners appealed the decision to a district court in the District of Columbia in Pro-Football, Inc. v. Harjo. The court reversed the USPTO's decision on the grounds of insufficient evidence of disparagement. Subsequent appeals have been rejected on the basis of laches, which means that the specific Native American plaintiffs had pursued their rights in an untimely and delayed manner. In 2009 the Supreme Court declined to take up the case.

On March 20, 2013, a bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, Delegate from American Samoa, and co-sponsored by 19 others to amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to void any trademark registrations that disparage Native American persons or peoples, such as redskins. Ten members of Congress also sent a letter to the NFL commissioner, all of the team owners including Dan Snyder, and Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx, a primary sponsor of the team; requesting that the name be changed due to the many Native American organizations that oppose the continued use of the name, and in order to fulfill the NFL's own policy regarding diversity. A co-sponsor, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), stated she supports the local team but not the name. The bill remains stalled in Congress, as many congressional supporters of a name change do not believe that federal legislation is the appropriate means to achieve that. Several of the D.C. area Representatives and Senators declined to comment on the issue. “I don’t consider it part of my role in Congress to weigh in on sports issues,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), a Ravens fan, in a statement. The bill entitled "The Non-Disparagement of Native American Persons or Peoples in Trademark Registration Act" was re-introduced in February, 2015 by Rep. Michael M. Honda (D-California).

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