The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark and Appeal Board has cancelled the trademark for the Washington professional football team, declaring in its ruling this morning that it's an offensive racial slur and stating further that the trademark should never have been issued in the first place:
“We decide, based on the evidence properly before us, that these registrations must be cancelled because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered.”The ruling would ultimately hit team owner L'il Danny Snyder in the wallet, since much of his revenue comes from marketing team jerseys and paraphernalia, which would, pending an inevitable appeal from L'il Danny's lawyers in U.S. District Court, be able to be reproduced and sold by others without fear of trademark infringement. It's clearly a turning point for Native Americans wanting to remove the offensive name from a major sports franchise after decades of trying.
