The BayNet reports
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After announcing on July 13 that the Washington Redskins would be retiring their name, the process of seeking out a new one before the tentative start of the 2020 season has seen a few bumps in the road.
Or perhaps, potholes.
A 61-year-old Virginia-man, Philip Martin McCauley, could end up being what stands between the team’s most formidable new team name options. For years, McCauley has practiced what is known as “trademark squatting,” by going through the tedious and relatively low-cost process of registering trademarks with hopes that a larger organization might buy it off of them later. In an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, McCauley said it started just as a “hobby.”
He filed a trademark for the Washington Warriors, one potential option that has appeared in discussions, back in July of 2015.
SOURCE: U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
He also registered the trademarks for Washington Red Wolves, Washington Redtails, Washington Veterans, and Washington Monuments, among many others for a total of 44 claims to potential team names.
A handful of other people have since caught on, taking a claim to a variety of other potential names, hoping they may hold the winning name.
However, McCauley has gone the extra mile in his endeavors, knowing that he holds some of the most popular options that the team is looking at.
It is important to note that U.S. trademark law requires that the trademarks must be in use for the terms in question. That is why McCauley went to the extreme of setting up a relatively simple website to showcase some of the popular names that he owns, WashingtonAmericansFootball.com.
A Washington Post reporter said on Twitter that the team couldn’t announce a new name on Monday due to the name being “tied up in a trademark fight.”
However, McCauley told the Times-Dispatch that he had offered the name Warriors to the team for free if it would accelerate the timing of the change. But after not hearing back, he rescinded his offer.
Now, knowing that people from higher places may be coming after his trademarks, he told the Times-Dispatch that he has plans for all of his team names.
Starting a flag football league, once the pandemic is finally over.
Also this
Trademark lawyer says Washington’s rapid name change is ‘pretty unusual’
The news that everyone knew was coming finally came at 9 a.m. on Monday morning, with the Washington football team releasing a statement that said they would be retiring their current team name as soon as they found a replacement. This announcement came on July 13th, just 10 days after the team announced that they’d conduct a formal review of the team name.
Seems pretty quick, no?
Well, according to a trademark lawyer who discussed the situation with NBC Sports Washington, it’s extremely abnormal that the decision-makers reached a decision this quickly.
“I can’t think of another instance where a major sports team or large corporation has done that,” said Scott Zebrak, a founding partner of leading Washington, D.C. copyright and trademark boutique law firm Oppenheim + Zebrak. “Typically, when you look at selecting a trademark and a brand, you ideally are not doing that in rushed circumstances. You are balancing a lot of things. At the corporate level, you’re picking a name that is going to be a commercially-successful brand for you. That alone you don’t want to rush. Typically, for a major corporation or major sports teams, you’re going to have an outside firm or a whole group of people involved in that. So doing it in 10 days is pretty unusual.”
