The Best Offense Is a Good Defense: How the Washington [NFL team] Overcame Challenges to Their Registered Trademarks
Lynette Paczkowski Editors Note: This article contains a racial slur the IPTF does not support. Discussion of the slur is in a purely academic context. Please direct any comments or questions to bciptf@gmail.com In 1999, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) decided Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc., in which a group of Native Americans (the “Petitioners”) alleged that the term “Redskin(s)” was a pejorative, derogatory, degrading, offensive, scandalous, contemptuous, disreputable, disparaging and racist designation for a Native American person; the marks owned by Pro-Football, Inc. (“Pro-Football”), were offensive, disparaging and scandalous; Pro-Football’s use of the marks offended the petitioners and other...