Yep, this again. Given the current political climate one wonders how this will turn out.

"Washington’s NFL team could face a battle to retain its ‘Redskins’ trademark after lawyers for Native Americans objecting to the name said last week’s supreme court ruling on license plates in Texas boosted their case.

The ruling found that the state of Texas was not required to issue specialty license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag, and lawyer Jeff Lopez said on Tuesday that his clients’ case was strengthened because the high court found that Texas was not infringing on the free speech rights.

A judge Tuesday heard arguments in US district court on a lawsuit filed by the team seeking to preserve its trademark registration for the Redskins name. Last year the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the team’s trademark registration should be canceled on the grounds that it may be offensive to Native Americans.

US district judge Gerald Bruce Lee, who will decide the case, asked lawyers at the start of the hearing to focus on how that supreme court case affects the Redskins’ case.

Lopez argued that the federal government is not infringing on the Redskins’ free speech rights just by denying them the protection of a federal trademark.

The Redskins’ lawyer, Robert Raskopf, said the two cases are distinct because license plates are issued by the state, and forcing to state to print license plates with the Confederate flag is equivalent to forcing the government to adopt the Confederate group’s appreciation for the flag. In contrast, he said, merely issuing a trademark registration does not require the government to take a position advocating the Redskins’ viewpoint.

The team has argued in court papers that losing its trademark protections infringes upon its free speech rights. Lawyers for the Native Americans say the case has nothing to do with free speech. The Redskins are free to use the name even if they lose the trademark battle; they just lose some of the legal protections that go along with a registered trademark.

The Justice Department has also intervened in the case on the side of the Native Americans."

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2015/06/27/wa...s/?subscriber=1

Stick it to the D.C Pols. Rename the team the "Washington FORESKINS".

The election of Donald Trump seems to have ushered in a new Age of Sanity.

Zitat

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The Trump administration is throwing in the towel in the fight to strip the Washington Redskins football team of its trademarks.

The Justice Department sent a letter to a federal appeals court Wednesday afternoon conceding that a Supreme Court decision last week in favor of an Asian-American band calling itself "The Slants" means that the NFL's Redskins will prevail in the battle over efforts to cancel the team's trademarks on the grounds that the name is disparaging to Native Americans.

"The Supreme Court’s decision in Matal v. Tam [the Slants' case] controls the disposition of this case," Justice Department Civil Division attorney Mark Freeman wrote in the letter to the Richmond-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. "Consistent with Tam, the Court should reverse the judgment of the district court and remand the case with instructions to enter judgment in favor of Pro-Football."

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-...ademarks-240066