A federal judge has now ordered the cancellation of the trademark registration for the Washington Redskins’ logo, which will go into effect once the appeals process is over:
CNN – The Washington Redskins football team lost a key battle in court on Wednesday over their trademark registration, as a federal judge ruled to cancel the NFL team’s registration, stating that the logo might denigrate Native Americans.
This decision is a setback for the team’s ongoing legal and public relations battle that has taken course over the past year, but a win for Native American activists who oppose the logo, including five individuals who were faced with a lawsuit last summer, according to The Washington Post.
The cancellation will not officially take place until the team has exhausted all appeals in the Federal Courts.
Even though some might argue this is a big win against the Redskins, it doesn’t mean their logo is up grabs. It will lack additional federal law protections, but as Mark Levin pointed out last year, it is still solely their property and defendable in court:
Levin argues that despite the Obama administration ruling, the Redskins still own their name and logo and still own the use of their name and logo because of Common Law. And if you try and use their name and logo, Levin says the Redskins will sue you and will win because there is not a court in the land that won’t uphold Common Law.
Feel free to listen to his full explanation on this from last year: