Redskins Statement on Appeal of Trademark Decision

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va.   –   “It’s a good day to be sued.”

It’s a good day to be sued? Hmmm…

This is what Amanda Blackhorse, the named petitioner in an appeal that the Washington Redskins have filed as a result of the cancellation of their federal trademark registrations by the U.S. Patent Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) wrote on her Facebook page today. Blackhorse was an outspoken petitioner in the push to get those trademark registrations cancelled. Today the Redskins released a statement that they had filed an appeal of that cancellation.

Back on June 18, the TTAB announced that it had canceled six federal trademark registrations owned by the team, stating that back during the period between 1967 and 1990 — when the trademarks were licensed — the team name was “disparaging to a substantial composite” of Native Americans. So the Redskins, as we knew they would, filed an appeal, effectively suing the petitioners on the basis of constitutional issues that the team says the board “lacked the authority to address.”

“The team is suing me and the other plaintiffs,” Blackhorse told reporters from USA Today Sports. “We thought they’d file an appeal but they decided to file a suit against us. … This is not just going to an appeals court. This is a full-on trial. We’ll have to have our witnesses ready. We were expecting this. When they won on appeal last time, in the (Suzan) Harjo case, they won on a legal technicality. And they’re not going to have the chance with us.”

Today the Redskins issued a statement about the filing of their appeal of the TTAB’s action in June:

Today the Washington Redskins NFL team filed its appeal of the split decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) ordering cancellation of the Washington Redskins’ long-held federal trademark registrations.  The appeal is in the form of a complaint, effectively starting the litigation anew, this time in a federal court before a federal judge, and not in the administrative agency that issued the recent split decision.

“We believe that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ignored both federal case law and the weight of the evidence, and we look forward to having a federal court review this obviously flawed decision,” said Bob Raskopf, trademark attorney for the Washington Redskins.

The Washington Redskins’ complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, explains why the Court should reverse the Board’s order and properly find that Native Americans did not consider the team name “Washington Redskins” to be disparaging during the relevant time frame of 1967-1990.  While the complaint points out the many errors in the Board’s decision, the federal judge may disregard the Board’s decision entirely in conducting its own independent evaluation of the evidence.

The complaint also asks the federal court to consider the serious Constitutional issues that the Board lacked the authority to address.  Specifically, by cancelling valuable, decades-old registrations, the Board improperly penalized the Washington Redskins based on the content of the team’s speech in violation of the First Amendment.  The complaint also alleges that the team has been unfairly deprived of its valuable and long-held intellectual property rights in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

“The Washington Redskins look forward to all of the issues in the case being heard in federal court under the federal rules of evidence.  The team is optimistic that the court will correctly and carefully evaluate the proofs, listen to the arguments, and confirm the validity of the Washington Redskins’ federal trademark registrations, just as another federal court has already found in a virtually identical case,” Raskopf said.

While the case is in federal court, the Washington Redskins’ federal trademark registrations remain in full force and effect.  As always, the Washington Redskins has the right to use its marks and to enforce them against infringers and counterfeiters.

“One hour ago the Washington Team filed a lawsuit against Amanda Blackhorse, Marcus Biggs Cloud, Jillian Pappan, Phil Gover and Courtney Tsotigh to overturn the TTABs decision to cancel their racist marks and name,” Blackhorse also said today. “We are ready, it’s game time!”

Hail.