Lisa Blatt: The legal mind behind the Redskins ‘Take Yo Panties Off’ trademark defense

Lots of names were dropped in the comically vulgar but serious legal brief the Washington Redskins filed last week to defend their federal trademark registrations. How, the team’s lawyers demanded in an 82-page brief that galloped across the Internet, could the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board strip the Redskins of their registrations because the moniker offends some Native Americans, but preserve registrations for Take Yo Panties Off clothing, Midget Man condoms, TeensDoPorn.com, Baked By a Negro cookies and scores of other companies?

Those names — and many more too profane to publish here — were a provocative new wrinkle in the National Football League team’s long-standing legal argument that far worse monikers than the Redskins have trademark registrations.

But one other important name was also new in the brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond: Lisa S. Blatt. The 50-year-old Arnold & Porter partner is the Redskins’ new attorney in the case, and she’s a big-time advocate.

Blatt has argued 33 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court — more than any other female litigator in the country. She won 32 of them. The Web site 360 Law dubbed her Arnold & Porter’s “pugnacious powerhouse” and lauded her “ruthlessly martial brand of courtroom combat.”

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