By: Jason Tran
Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, federal judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, ordered the cancellation of The Washington Redskins’ trademark on Wednesday, July 8th.
Native American activists claim The NFL team’s name is offensive to Native Americans and have been fighting a legal war to strip the team of its name for over two decades. The first petition filed to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board was filed by Suzan Shown Harijo in 1992. The panel ruled against The Redskins, leaving Harjo and affiliated Native American groups with a victory. The Redskins later appealed in the federal court, claiming there was not enough evidence showing that their team name was offensive, yet despite this Redskins court victory, the legal war continued.
Redskins Owner Dan Snyder refused to change the name despite the requests of many leading public figures, among them half of the members of the U.S. Senate. Dan Snyder responded to the pressure by stating, “I respect the opinions of those who disagree. I want them to know that I do hear them, and I will continue to listen and learn, but we cannot ignore our 81 year history, or the strong feelings of most of our fans as well as Native Americans throughout the country. After 81 years, the team name ‘Redskins’ continues to hold the memories and meaning of where we came from, who we are, and who we want to be in the years to come.”
The most recent ruling that forces the Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the Redskins’ trademark registration will not go into effect until the team exhausts the appeals process. The decision does not prevent fans from collecting and wearing The Redskins’ merchandise, but the team loses certain protection rights for their franchise outside of Virginia.
In response to Judge Lee’s decision, Redskins team president Bruce Allen said, “We are convinced that we will win because the facts and the law are on the side of our franchise that has proudly used the name Redskins for more than 80 years”.