CBS NEWS
WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) -- The long-running battle over
the Washington Redskins name gets a restart Thursday, when a group of
Native Americans goes before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to
argue that the franchise should lose their federal trademark protection,
based on a law that prohibits registered names that disparaging,
scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable.
The board is headed by Chief Administrative Trademark Judge Gerard F. Rogers.
As someone who has spent nearly a third of her life fighting the
Redskins nickname, Suzan Shown Harjo had a good laugh when asked about
the team's latest line of defense.
Redskins general manager Bruce Allen said last month that it is
"ludicrous" to think that the team is "trying to upset anybody" with its
nickname, which many Native Americans consider to be offensive.
That's beside the point, according to Harjo. She's never suggested
that the Redskins deliberately set out to offend anyone. But that
doesn't mean that people aren't offended.
"It's just like a drive-by shooting," Harjo said Wednesday. "They're
trying to make money, and not caring who is injured in the process - or
if anyone is injured in the process. I don't think they wake up or go to
sleep dreaming of ways to hurt Native people. I think they wake up and
go to sleep thinking of ways to make money - off hurting Native people."
Harjo has won this round before. She was one of the plaintiffs when
the board stripped the Redskins of the trademark in 1999, but the ruling
was overturned in 2003 in large part on a technicality. Essentially,
the courts decided that the plaintiffs were too old, that they should
have filed their complaint soon after the Redskins registered their
nickname in 1967, or shortly they became adults and therefore old enough
to file a case.