Pro-Football files appeal in CA4 over Washington "Redskins" trademark

Pro-Football, Inc. has appealed to the Fourth Circuit the district court decision from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division (Hon. Gerald Bruce Lee ) and lists the following legal issues:



1. Whether § 2(a)’s disparagement clause violates the First Amendment.
2. Whether § 2(a)’s disparagement clause is impermissibly vague, in
violation of the First and Fifth Amendments.
3. Whether the government’s decades-long delay between registering
and cancelling the Redskins marks violates due process.
4. Whether the Redskins marks were disparaging when registered,
starting in 1967.
5. Whether laches barred the cancellation petition.




The decision cancelled six trademark
registrations of Appellant Pro-Football, Inc. (Redskins or Team) because
the Team’s name supposedly “disparaged” Native Americans under
§ 2(a) of the Lanham Act.

Link: http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/Pro-Football%20opening%20brief.pdf