The Supreme Court [declined to review Native American activists’ lawsuit against the Washington Redskins for their use of an offensive nickname](https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/11/16/supreme-court-refuses-harjo-redskins-can-keep-trademark/id=7314/). The case, which has been pending since 1996, had been previously dismissed in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

In 1996, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board sided with the activists, citing the Lanham Act, which prohibits names that “may disparage . persons, living or dead . or bring them into contempt or disrepute.” The team, however, appealed to the District Court.

“The court dismissed the lawsuit, finding the trademarks both not disparaging and the lawsuit to be too late,” said Philip Mause, a defense attorney working on the case.

The plaintiffs then waited eight years after becoming eligible to file suit. In 2003, the case was introduced to the U.S. Court of Appeals. However, the court again ruled against the plaintiffs because it agreed with the District Court about the issue of timing.

“The U.S. Court of Appeals did not even reach the disparagement issue,” Mause said.

With the dismissal of the case by the Supreme Court, there is little that the plaintiffs, led by activist Suzan Shown Harjo, can do. Their case was defined by the delay, but the defense remarked that another case against the Redskins, the Blackhorse v. Professional Football case was frozen pending the results of this case.

“The Native Americans are going to keep fighting this,” Mause said.

The Redskins’ trial is unprecedented in its scope, but the issue of controversial mascots is nothing new to the sports world. The NCAA issued a statement in 2005 barring 18 colleges from hosting postseason events due to their “hostile and abusive American-Indian nicknames.”

The Redskins were founded in Boston in 1932 and were originally called the Braves. The organization changed its name to the Redskins in 1933 and moved to the Washington area in 1937, according to the Redskins Web site. The team, in its brief to the Supreme Court, claimed that the name change was due to William Dietz, the coach at the time, who is a Native American.

There are also economic reasons for the Redskins wanting to keep their name. “It stands to reason that if the Redskins lost the right to this name, they would suffer significant loss of revenue from the sale of various merchandise bearing the Redskins’ logo,” said Marius Schwartz, a professor of microeconomics at Georgetown.”