Federal Court Orders Cancellation of Washington Football Team’s Trademarks Registration

Here are the materials in Pro-Football, Inc. v. Blackhorse (E.D. Va.):

53 DCT Order on Briefing Schedule

56 Pro-Football Motion for Summary J on Constitutional Claims

71 Blackhorse Motion for Partial Summary J

100 Pro-Football Cross Motion

106 Blackhorse Second Motion for Partial Summary J

109 US Motion for Summary J

118 Blackhorse Reply in Support of 71

119 Pro-Football Reply in Support of 56

126 Blackhorse Reply in Support of 106

127 US Reply in Support of 109

128 Pro-Football Reply in Support of 100

161 DCT Order

Prior posts here, here, here, here, and here.

TTAB materials here.

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Cancels Trademarks for Washington Football Team — Updated

Here is the news coverage.

Link to the decision here.

from the PTO website:

Read the full decision

Fact sheet for media

Official USPTO statement regarding Blackhorse v. Pro Football, Inc. decision

Patent and Trademark Materials: Rejecting “Washington Redskins Potatoes” Mark

Here.

“The PTO has approved past marks for red-skinned potatoes and peanuts, but the application doesn’t appear to have anything to do with actual potatoes.”

Christine Haight Farley on the Washington Redskins Trademark Question

Here. Thanks to Ezra for this.

An excerpt:

How would you feel about a wine called “Khoran?” Apparently, the word “Khoran” is Armenian for altar, which is why a company sought to trademark “Khoran” for wine in the United States. But should such a trademark be registered by the US government when, being phonetically equivalent to the sacred text of Islam, it may offend Muslims when used to denote an alcoholic beverage? In this case, the trademark was refused registration by the US trademark office.

Should a trademark application for jeans called “Jesus Jeans” be treated any differently? In the US and European Union, this registration was allowed, however, China, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Cuba, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have all refused the trademark, and Britain’s trademark office rejected its as “morally offensive to the public”.

What should we do about offensive trademarks? Granted, this is not the biggest problem that plagues us today and there are very few offensive trademarks that are still in use. Perhaps the most obvious thing to do is to vote with our dollars. That is, generally the market will correct the problem since merchants usually do not want to offend their customers.

And yet there still are some trademarks out there that offend. And some of them offend deeply. One of those trademarks is “Redskins”, which is the trademark for the professional American football team in Washington, DC.

Pro Football v. Harjo — Trademark Claim Against Redskins Dismissed

Again, laches is the culprit.

pro-football-v-harjo-dct-opinion