(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Holy shit: USPTO cancels Washington Filthy Savages trademarks

(Warning: Link will open a history of the case and download a PDF of the ruling)

Comments

[skiriki.livejournal.com]

Legalese hurts my brain in Finnish, and even more fiercely in English. Um, I can haz tl;dr of this, dumbed down?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The Washington NFL team has a racist slur for their name. Because they're a professional sports team, they've trademarked it and the logo and the variants so that they're the only people legally allowed to make merchandise and use it on signs and stuff.

The US Patent And Trademark Office just ruled that since you legally can't have racist trademarks, and their name is racist, their trademark is invalid. This doesn't force them to change the name, but it stops them from legally pursuing anyone else making knockoff stuff. Merchandising makes *huge* money, and they've just lost the exclusivity that lets them sell $3 Filthy Savages jerseys for $80 each. Now they'll have to compete with companies selling the same jerseys for $5.

Or, y'know, change the name to something that isn't racist, and trademark *that* instead. And go back to making $80/jersey.

[skiriki.livejournal.com]

Aha! Thank you! I picked the gist of the problem (trademarked slur), but the trademark-can't-be-this-or-that was giving me confusion at times.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

The trademark is still in effect during the appeal process (assuming that the team owners appeal).

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I kind of assume "this sensible thing will be stayed pending an appeal" in ALL cases that don't involve the phrases "supreme court" or "denied a stay".

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

In fact, here's Sports Illustrated doing a simple version. (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20140618/washington-redskins-trademark-cancelled-uspto/)

[felisdemens.livejournal.com]

A step in the right direction, anyway!