Indians ask court to revoke Washington Redskins trademark

Posted Sep 16th 2009 5:00PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Business of Sports

The Washington Redskins football team is hearing it from all sides lately.

Last week they were criticized -- unfairly in my opinion -- for suing season ticket holders who had lost their jobs and could no longer afford their seats.

Now a coalition of tribes -- Cheyenne and Arapaho, Oneida of Wisconsin, Cochiti Pueblo, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Navajo, Oglala Sioux and Standing Rock Sioux -- is asking the United States Supreme Court to revive a challenge to the team's trademark.

Basically, the tribes are arguing that because the name has subjected them to "insult, degradation and humiliation resulting from the use of the derogatory term 'redskins", it should not be protected by US law.

Let's be clear: I think the idea of a football team named the "Redskins" is offensive and revolting and if it were my team, I would change it. But choosing a name that most reasonable people find offensive is not a good enough reason to strip a company of its right to protect its intellectual property.

Think about it: The term "Girls Gone Wild" is degrading and many women find it offensive. Should it be banned?

The real legal principle here is (or should be) this: You do not have a right to not be offended. Really. You don't. You have a right to not be assaulted or harassed, but the fact that someone's intellectual property offends you does not give you a right to deprive them of the same legal protections everyone else has.

Tags: Football, NFL, Redskins

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-16-2009 @ 6:31PM

neice said...

CHANGE IT,THE TEAM IN NO WAY ARE NATIVE AMERICAN, PLUS NOT TO MANY YEARS AGO WHITE MAN HATED PEOPLE OF RED SKIN, AT LEAST FOR ONCE GIVE THE INDIANS WHAT THEY ASK FOR , AND NOT TAKE IT BACK

9-16-2009 @ 8:48PM

Dan Barnett said...

Perhaps if the team played better & won more the Native Americans wouldn't be so upset.

9-17-2009 @ 7:42AM

bikpens said...

I heard the PETA tried to get the Green Bay Packers to change their name because they found the connection to meat packing plants to be offensive.

They even said they would provide the entire town of Green Bay with free veggie burgers if they changed the name.