Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Cancels REDSKINS Trademark Registrations

By David M. Kramer and James Stewart, of DLA Piper LLP   In a ruling that has quickly spread throughout social media, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) issued an order cancelling six trademark registrations which contain the word REDSKIN (the “Redskins Registrations”), owned by the Washington, D.C. professional football team, the Redskins (the “Team”). In a divided ruling, the Board stated that the Redskin Registrations “must be cancelled because they were di