Virginia legislators throw support behind Washington team name

At a time when neither the CEO of the company that put its name on the Washington franchise’s stadium nor the man who serves as the current face of the franchise will publicly support the team’s name, a Virginia legislator predictably is willing to go all in.
A group of Virginia legislators have founded the “Redskins Pride Caucus,” which will openly support the name of the franchise that conducts its training camp in Richmond.
“Wherever I go, it has been a constant topic that comes up,” Delegate David Ramadan told the Washington Post. “People ask me, ‘What can be done?’ This is our team, and as representatives of the people of Virginia, we are standing up for our citizens.”
Ramadan added that members of Congress inclined to challenge the team’s name should “go work on other issues and leave our Virginia businesses alone.”
The position isn’t surprising.  While FedEx’s Fred Smith and Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III realize that taking a position could alienate those who disagree with it, the Virginia legislators advance their careers with a simple majority only.  Then again, supporting the team is less about gaining the majority than it is about preserving it.
Fans of the team are far more likely than non-fans of the team to believe the name is fine, and those fans of the team who share owner Daniel Snyder’s all-caps-never-over-my-dead-body zeal regarding the name will be far more likely to show up at the polls to vote in favor of those politicians who agree — and to vote against those who don’t.
In Virginia and Maryland, opposing the team’s name will be the quickest way for a politician to no longer be a politician.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo via CBSnews.com

U.S. Patent and Trademark office cancels protection of Washington team name

Whenever the government gets involved in the question of whether the Washington NFL team should change its name, people who support the current name ask whether the government has anything better to do.  For one specific agency of the government, the answer is a resounding no.
That’s the same one-word response the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has supplied regarding the question of whether the name should continue to enjoy federal trademark protection.  Via the Washington Post, the agency has canceled the registration, calling the name “disparaging to Native Americans.”
“This victory was a long time coming and reflects the hard work of many attorneys at our firm,” attorney Jesse Witten of Drinker Biddle & Reath told the Post.
It was indeed a long time coming, with the first challenge to the name filed back in 1992.  The initial case failed on a technicality that the plaintiffs believe has been remedied in this case.
Moving forward, appeals are certain and lawyers will get paid and the issue won’t be settled for months if not years.  In the interim, the ruling will serve only to give more momentum to the increasingly loud and persuasive voices that oppose the name.
If the name, after all appeals, is deemed to not be protected by trademark laws, anyone and everyone will be able to sell merchandise bearing the name and colors without the team having the ability to enforce its rights through legal action.  While that may not be enough to compel owner Daniel Snyder to abandon his all-caps-never and/or “over my dead body” insistence on keeping the name, it would be the first tangible evidence of an economic consequence for continuing to cling to a name that the ever-evolving English language has over the slow march of time discarded from the list of socially acceptable terms.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo via CBSnews.com