Oh my. When did the pay for the trademark? Forkie is happy about a law that limits free speech. I'm not.
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Originally posted by: Chilcoot
I know there's a lot of purposeful stupidity being exercised here, most notably the notion that President Obama, through the federal Patent & Trademark Office, is somehow curtailing free speech. Now THAT'S some stupidity.
Congress passed a law refusing the federal government the power to issue a patent or trademark if it consists of matter that "disparage[s] or falsely suggest[s] a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute".
Yesterday, five Native Americans convinced the office that the Washington Redskins did just that, that their attempts to maintain a trademark on the word "Redskins" was in fact disparaging of Native Americans. And so the trademark was withdrawn.
People of course remain free to continue to humiliate themselves by using the awful word "Redskins". Free speech and all that.
But no one can claim the protections of trademark law for it, the federal laws that protect a word or term's use in trade won't apply to "Redskins", if the office's ruling survives appeal.
