A federal judge today cancelled the Washington Redskins federal trademark registrations on their name because it's racist. US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee's decision affirmed a previous ruling that that the name is offensive to Native Americans and as such can't be legally be protected.
The cancellation, hailed by Native American activists as a “huge victory,” doesn’t go into effect until the team has exhausted the appeals process in the federal court system. And Redskins President Bruce Allen vowed Wednesday that the team would appeal.
“We are convinced that we will win on appeal as the facts and the law are on the side of our franchise that has proudly used the name Washington Redskins for more than 80 years, said Resdskins president Bruce Allen.
From the Washington Post:
(Lee rejected) the team’s argument that the vast majority of Native Americans had no objection to the name when the trademarks were granted between 1967 and 1990. Instead the judge questioned why the team ever chose the name, pointing out in his ruling that Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defined the word as “often contemptuous” in 1898, “seventy years prior to the registration of the first Redskins Mark.”
