EDVA: REDSKINS Defendants Can’t Have It Both Ways

As we previously wrote about this year, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) cancelled Washington Redskins owner Pro-Football Inc.'s REDSKINS trademark registrations finding that the marks are disparaging to Native Americans. Pro-Football subsequently filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia seeking review of that decision. In an interesting move, defendants filed a motion to dismiss the suit alleging that there is no judicially cognizable dispute because they have no direct stake in the outcome of the case. This is despite the fact that Defendants are the very group of Native Americans who petitioned for cancellation of the REDSKINS marks in the first place. In an opinion denying the motion and confirming that defendants need not necessarily have an economic interest to nonetheless have an interest in the outcome of a review of a TTAB cancellation, Judge Lee has told the defendants they can't have it both ways. That is, they cannot now claim