U.S. Patent Office Cancels Redskins Trademarks

This morning, the U.S. Patent Office canceled 6 Redskins football team trademarks after its Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled the those in question were “disparaging to Native Americans.”

“We are extraordinarily gratified to have prevailed in this case,” said Alfred Putnam, Jr., chairman of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, which represented the five men and women who initiated the suit brought to the Patent Office.

The board canceled the trademarks in 1999, but four years later, a federal judge overturned the ruling body’s decision.