National Football League - Washington Redskins

Judge Nears Ruling in Redskins Name Fight

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2003; Page B07

A federal judge said yesterday she is moving to resolve a long-running dispute over whether the team name and logo for the Washington Redskins are insulting to Native Americans, a ruling that could affect millions of dollars in sales of Redskins paraphernalia.

The 11-year-old case, which has pitted a series of owners against a group of Native Americans, is nearing conclusion as the National Football League gears up for a Sept. 4 season-opening concert on the Mall featuring Britney Spears and Aerosmith and a Redskins-Jets kickoff game at FedEx Field.

At a hearing yesterday in Washington, the two sides argued before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly over whether the team should lose the federal registration for its trademarks, which grants exclusive rights to use the team name and logo on T-shirts, caps and other merchandise worth an estimated $5 million a year.

The Native Americans, led by Cheyenne activist and District resident Suzan Shown Harjo, said yesterday that the team's name and feather-wearing Indian mascot trivialize a tragic time when Indians were victims of genocide and forced off their land by settlers and U.S. soldiers.

The plaintiffs cite a 1946 federal law that prohibits the government from registering a trademark that disparages any race, religion or other group. Hoping to get the team to change its name, Harjo took the legal battle to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1992, and a panel of that agency sided with her in 1999.

"They've changed their coach, their uniforms, their owners -- everything," Harjo said yesterday. "We just need them to change one more thing."

Pro-Football Inc., the corporation that owns the Redskins, is appealing the trademark panel's decision. Its attorneys said yesterday that the "difficult relations" between Anglo-Americans and Native Americans were unfortunate. But, they argued, in the 21st century, the beloved hometown team has changed the connotation of the word "Redskins" to one that is "powerfully positive" -- associated more with touchdowns than tomahawks.

The owners' attorneys also argued that the Redskins' name is vitally important to the team's identity.

Daniel Snyder, principal owner, has repeatedly said he will not change the name. His attorneys said cancellation of the trademark registration could cost the club an unknown amount of money if it has to legally battle every entrepreneur who wants to print a Redskins T-shirt.

Team attorneys attacked the Native Americans' case and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision on multiple fronts. Attorney Robert Raskopf, of the New York firm White & Case, told the judge that few Native Americans are fighting the trademark and that their challenges have come too late. Seven Native Americans filed the first complaint.

The team registered its first trademark in 1967 and its sixth in 1990.

"What is ridiculous is the claim that the Redskins' [trademark] ridicules anyone," Raskopf told the court. "Do some groups think that our famous football team's name is disparaging? Apparently. Fine. They're entitled to their opinion. . . . But it has to be a high level of Native Americans. It can't be 7, or 70, or even 1,000."

The team's attorney said that the trademark office did not use relevant information or scientific methods in making its decision and that canceling the trademark would violate the owners' right to free speech.

Harjo said she was convinced of the "righteousness" of her cause and was glad to see the case nearing a decision. She said team owners have engaged in a war of "foot-dragging and stonewalling," including successfully preventing then-owner Jack Kent Cooke from being deposed by the plaintiffs' attorneys before he died in 1997. Team attorneys also tried to block Harjo's attorney from deposing Snyder. The court ordered that he answer questions, but the contents of his deposition are sealed from public view.

"They're fighting tooth and nail all the way," Harjo said. "That's wasted a whole lot of time."

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

This article was taken from www.washingtonpost.com.  All rights reserved.