Redskins Cannot Trademark Nickname

The Washington Redskins have no right to trademark their nickname because it is disparaging to Native Americans, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled Friday.

In a decision that gave nearly total victory to a group of Native Americans who filed a complaint in 1992, the board ordered the cancellation of federal registrations for seven Redskin trademarks, including the team’s name and the helmet logo showing an Indian’s head in profile.

The 145-page ruling does not prevent the team from continuing to use the Redskins name and the related logos. But it could jeopardize the millions of dollars in revenue that all National Football League teams reap from the sale of Redskin merchandise because the team would no longer be able to use federal law to prevent others from putting the logos on items such as T-shirts, caps and pennants.

The board’s decision will not take effect until the Redskins have had a chance to appeal.

“This is fabulous,” said lead plaintiff Suzan Shown Harjo, a District resident and member of the Cheyenne tribe. “I never expected to see justice done in my lifetime. . . . This is an absolutely mighty landmark [of] societal change that we are watching.”

The Redskins have no plans to change the team’s name, and they will appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, said the team’s attorney, John Paul Reiner. The team also plans to use state patent law to protect the logos and name from infringement, he said.

“We regret the opinion, and we think it’s wrong,” Reiner said. “We are going to continue to protect the marks vigorously.”

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined to comment on the decision.

Though Native American groups have long protested names and symbols they find offensive--including the Cleveland Indians’ logo and the tomahawk chop used by Atlanta Brave fans--this marks the first time that a federal agency has come down on their side.

On the state level, the Utah Supreme Court ruled this year in a case involving complaints by Native Americans about several license plates that bore variations on the word “redskin.” A state agency had rejected the challenge, but the Supreme Court ordered the agency to reconsider.

A 1946 federal trademark law says names cannot be protected if they are “disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable.”

In Friday’s ruling, the patent board relied on testimony from linguists and historians that the term “redskin” has long been used in a pejorative sense to refer to Native Americans. The board also cited a survey commissioned by the plaintiffs that found that 46% of the general public considered the word “offensive to me.”