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Sunday, January 11, 2015

JUST IN: Justice Department intervenes in Redskins trademark protection lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday intervened in the court fight over whether Washington’s football team should be able to legally trademark the name “Redskins,” saying in a brief that it will defend the government against Washington’s claim that a law preventing the trademarks is unconstitutional.

Attorney General Eric Holder has called the team’s name “offensive,” but the Justice Department is not taking a position on whether the name should be changed. Rather, it is intervening solely “for the limited purpose of defending the constitutionality” of federal trademark laws, according to the brief it filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia (via Zoe Tillman).

The court case resulted from a government decision in June that invalidated six of the team’s federal trademark protections in June. In that decision, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeals Board ruled that the use of “Redskins” was “disparaging to Native Americans” and thus violated Section 2(a) of the federal trademark law known as the Lanham Act, which prohibits the government from offering trademark protections for disparaging terminology.

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scary. Wherever freedom of speech is attacked it's a scary day. Eric Holder must go.

Anonymous said...

y'all better wake up don't you see what they are doing ...pushing all the buttons they are so anxious..to have domestic terrorism because that's the only way they are going to be able to gain total control over us all...they have passed patriot bills..terroism bills..HLS...NDAA...FEMA..NSA SPY..CONSTITUION BE DAMNED armed government agenices militairzed police ..gun control ....we are toast once we decide we have had enough and we pick up the pitchforks ....standby

Anonymous said...

3:55
Eric Holder is gone. Just thought you might want to know.

Obama Crooked Socialist Bastardo said...

Eric Holder is Offensive Power Hungry Crook. Just as is his boss The Annoitted Almighty Commander Liar & Thief Barry Obama.My fellow brothers in arms, Be prepared Ready and Steady, the Time is Coming

Anonymous said...

Let me start by saying I'm a Conservative. VERY Conservative.
The term "Redskins" is racist. Racist like "Yellowskins", "Whiteskins"; or "Brownskins".
Racist like the term "Sambo"; racist like Al Jolson in "The Jazz Singer".
It's time to admit it. It's time for a change.

Anonymous said...

You have every right to be offended by what I may say.

I have every right to say something that you might find offensive.

I can write it, broadcast it, and say it out loud in public.

You can choose to listen to it or ignore it.

You can also write, broadcast, or say a differing opinion.

See how that works for everybody? The First Amendment is not a difficult concept to understand.

Anonymous said...

Change the name to the Palefaces, that's not offensive.

Anonymous said...

DOJ has nothing better to do???

Anonymous said...

10:41 No, just no.

Anonymous said...

I'll say this one more time:
Walk into a bar on any Indian reservation, say, in Arizona. Loudly announce that you'll buy "every redskin in this place a beer".
If, after they drink the free beer, you don't get your butt kicked, then I'll say it's OK to call a team The Redskins.

Anonymous said...

Can you imagine how much worse this would have been if they had made the playoffs?