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Washington Commanders may have to change their name again


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2 hours ago, dollars 2 donuts said:


 

Red Tails for the fighter plane unit or Red Wolves just because.

 

 

One name I saw are really liked before was the RedHogs. Plays well into their team history. Fans have always showed up with pig noses to honor the OL (The Hogs).  Color scheme would work, they could use the "Hail to the Redskins" song..just switch it up a small bit.  And the mascot/branding/merchandising would be really easy. 

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7 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

 

Have you ever been told what "Redskin" refers to?

 

I'll wait...

Your response is rhetorical and contemptuous. There is an anthropological phenomena across cultures involving the ritual use of red earth/pigment. It has nothing to do with skin color. Indigenous peoples used "war paint" because they anticipated the possibility of death in battle and the red coloration was understood across various ancient cultures as associated with passage to the next realm. It's actually interesting, but regardless, I wrote later in the thread that because the issue is contentious and many folk find it offensive, they ought to stick with Washington Football Team.

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2 hours ago, ProcessTruster said:

Absolutely, that whole thing was BS


Just like the Seminole and Braves, it wasn’t the majority of Native Americans (NA) that were offended. It was white people who were offended that NAs weren’t offended enough that made the big stink. 
 

Just don’t understand how erasing NA from our culture is somehow a good thing for them. My wife is NA and we talk about this from time to time when she hears about another team deleting NAs. 
 

You name teams tough names to intimidate your opponents (obviously not really going to intimidate anyone playing modern sports). Using these names is an homage to NA ferocity and prowess on the battlefield. It’s out of respect of your former opponent.
 

You wouldn’t name your team after someone soft/weak that you don’t respect or a people you despise. 

Edited by DaggersEOD
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2 hours ago, Sierra Foothills said:

 

From the article you linked:

 

"Gerben believes the team will eventually be able to use the name. The separate question is whether new ownership will want to. The best move could be to make a clean break from All Things Snyder, and a full rebrand could be part of that effort."

 

Your topic title is some combination of The New York Post... and modern clickbait practices.

 

 

But yes, let's take the easiest target in the NFL and make sport of him because everyone else does.

 

Correct.

The general standard is whether the use of a trade name would cause confusion in consumers. 

There is really no good case that football viewing consumers would be confused about whether they are watching a professional football contest between the Washington Commanders and the New York Giants as opposed to a service academy annual game between the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy. And certainly no confusion between that and whatever some trademark squatter tried (successfully?) registered in the last couple years.

Getting official trademark recognition is valuable for the team (they can sue others for infringing on it), but it certainly isn't required.

If the Commanders want to keep that name (not exactly the greatest name ever), I'm quite sure their new $5 billion owners will prevail. 

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4 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

If the Commanders want to keep that name (not exactly the greatest name ever), I'm quite sure their new $5 billion owners will prevail. 

 

Micro$oft thought same thing.

Internet Explorer was originally going to be called Internet Exploder as Micro$oft was going to explode into internet business.

 

Micro$oft did lots of work on designing the IE logo and marketing but when testing should their product was going to crash frequently it they realized that headlines in the business would be about Micro$oft's browser exploding do they changed it from Internet Exploder to Internet Explorer so they could keeping marketing material, logo, etc.  They failed to do proper trademark search and did not know or ignore findings on a small company's product which was trademarked Internet Explorer.  When a trademark complaint was made Micro$oft tried to sue original trademark owner for patent infringement, lost in court and just repeatedly appealed and tried to exhaust trademark holder of funds.  This repeated through many levels of court with some pitching in to original trademark owner.  Eventually courts refused to hear more appeals and demanded Micro$oft pay original owner hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.  After Micro$oft paid they negotiated with trademark owner even more for right to use name.

 

Money does not always work in trademark fights unless it is someone who is trademarking names and has demonstrated no intention of use.

 

I work for USPTO but not in trademark / lawyer section.

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