Posted on 07/02/2014 6:25:12 AM PDT by Hoodat
The recent decision by an obscure administrative law board to cancel the Washington Redskins‘ trademark registrations came despite the fact the agency hadn’t received a single letter from a member of the public complaining about the team’s name, records show.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which is part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, ruled last month that the name was disparaging to American Indians. The team is appealing that decision.
Politicians, including President Obama, have waded into the team name controversy, with many saying the team should change its name. But despite widespread media attention and a legal fight that goes back more than a decade, the USPTO recently acknowledged there’s hardly been an avalanche of public complaints filed with the agency.
In fact, the agency doesn’t have any record of correspondence from the public about the Redskins‘ name — expressing sentiments one way or another — prior to the board’s June 18 ruling.
A Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Times asking for any communications from Congress or the public produced just 13 pages of records.
Six of those pages were . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
If I were the Redskins I’d just keep using the name. Everyone knows who they are. They don’t need no stinkin authority from the Feds to use their name.
Rename to the Austin Redskins.
Why do liberals care when NO ONE complained? Because they are power hungry totalitarians who think that they know better than anyone else.
Trademark is not my specialty, but I don’t really find the lack of public complaint (beyond the individual(s) who filed the original action) not surprising. Such proceedings don’t rely on anyone but the parties to the action. In this unique case perhaps, but I doubt a similar review of other trademarks that have been invalidated would find anything submitted by the general public.
Who knew that this was even going on?
I bet the USPTO would have gotten a good freeping had it been socialized here.
Not too far back the history of the Redskins name was published here, and it dates back to a particular Indian, King Tammany, for which the later-infamous Tammany Hall was named, and who was friendly to the early settlers of America.
That’s not the issue. If this stands, any company or person can copy the logo right off the webpage and make and sell T-shirts and hats and so on, taking millions of dollars of sales away from the team.
They can keep using the name..., but just won’t have the federal trademark to go after others who put the name on products. Opens the door to cheap “counterfeits.” If they are unsuccessful reinstating the mark, wouldn’t be surprised if they change their name and get a new trademark - lots of money selling stuff with the team’s name on it.
Isn’t this all insanity? Wasting time on this idiocy while it looks like the economy is on its deathbed and the stage for WW3 is being set in the Middle East?
Complaints? we don’t need no stinkin complaints.
bookmark
“Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo who successfully moved a federal agency to withdraw trademark protections from the Washington Redskins because it considers the team’s name derogatory, lives on a reservation where Navajos root for the Red Mesa High School Redskins. She opposes this name; the Native Americans who picked and retain it evidently do not.”
Imagine that! It is so offensive to American Indians that they name their own sports teams “Redskins”. Just to remember how offensive it is I guess.
The Team Name Nazis can do whatever they want. There is already tons and tons of Redskins gear out there. Washington will always be the Redskins and their fans aren’t going to stop calling them that.
Big gub mint at it’s nazi best
Just another step in the government taking further control of speech and future thought modification. I can only hope that liberals will one day realize they don’t want their lives micromanaged by the government. Sadly we seem to be rushing headlong into the “Brave New World” described by Aldous Huxley. Keep the masses uneducated, in confined places, placated with drugs and sex and everything will be all right for the elites. What a crock of BS, but it’s happening before my eyes.
Tyranny.
Liberals don't look at it that way. They are the micro-managers. And they get to micro-manage us!
It has not, nor will it ever, occur to them that they might be among those that their government micro-manages.
It's called an apparatchnik mentality.
Obama and goons are attempting to ‘stir the pot’. The goons want ‘white civil unrest’ so they can put the boot on our necks. Expect more of this crap leading up to mid-term elections. They’re trying to make us act like Rodney King hotheads... It ain’t gonna happen. We’ll respond - but not with impotent rage in the middle of a street...
Obama and goons are attempting to ‘stir the pot’. The goons want ‘white civil unrest’ so they can put the boot on our necks. Expect more of this crap leading up to mid-term elections. They’re trying to make us act like Rodney King hotheads... It ain’t gonna happen. We’ll respond - but not with impotent rage in the middle of a street... Jim McElhatton needs to see the larger picture. We’re being poked with sticks and taunted...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.