Redskins trademark ruling based on complaints from young people

Washington Post ?@washingtonpost 16m
The fascinating thing about the Redskins trademark ruling? It's based on complaints from young people. http://wapo.st/1ilPNu3


If the Redskins file their appeal in Virginia, they'll likely have more opportunity for entering evidence and developing the facts in the case, according to intellectual property experts. If they lose, they'll also have an additional chance to appeal, this time to the Federal Circuit. That gives them an extra bite at the apple.

Right. The district court doesn't typically handle matters of trademark registration, so it may be inclined to give the USPTO the benefit of the doubt. That's bad for the Redskins.

So the Redskins may decide to appeal in the Federal Circuit. There won't be an opportunity to add evidence to the record, and if the Redskins lose, the next stop would have to be the Supreme Court. But where things stand now, there's not much point to adding evidence.

Why not?

Because the Redskins' name has been a legal issue for years, with lots of evidence already in the record. The USPTO actually sided with Native American petitioners once before, in 1999. The Redskins appealed, and ten years later, the court ruled that the petitioners' right to complain had basically expired. The petitioners had lived with the offensive name "Redskins" for too long without speaking up.

Today's petitioners seem to have taken that lesson to heart. The current case involves younger, 18-year-old petitioners who, because of their age, hadn't previously been able to exercise their right to sue. Now they are.


read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/06/18/7-questions-everyones-asking-about-the-redskins-trademark/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost