Michael Atkins - Seattle Trademark Lawyer

Recommend Decision on Redskins Trademark Proper but Mostly Symbollic (Email)

This action will generate an email recommending this article to the recipient of your choice. Note that your email address and your recipient's email address are not logged by this system.

Email Article Link

The email sent will contain a link to this article, the article title, and an article excerpt (if available). For security reasons, your IP address will also be included in the sent email.

Article Excerpt:

No question, the PTO got it right.

The PTO’s administrative law branch, the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, finally decided the REDSKINS trademark is too offensive to continue to justify the expanded rights that stem from federal registration. So it canceled the team’s six registrations on the ground the mark is “immoral or scandalous.”

The mark has been so offensive to Native Americans for so long, it’s a shame it took the government this long to strip the mark of the additional rights it had granted.

However, its doing so in no way means the team has to stop using the mark or that others can sell merchandise bearing the trademark without liability. Both of those things were widely reported, but they’re wrong.

Article Link:

Your Name:

Your Email:

Recipient Email:

Message:

Copyright © 2006-2021, Michael G. Atkins. All rights reserved. I'm a partner and Seattle intellectual property attorney at Atkins Intellectual Property, PLLC, where I focus my practice on issues involving the Lanham Act, including trademark infringement, unfair competition, trade dress infringement, trademark dilution, false designation of origin, counterfeiting, cybersquatting, trademark licensing, trademark applications, trademark registrations, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), and the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Thanks for checking out my blog. Please visit again soon!