In a very strange and interesting move, the US Patent and Trademark Office canceled the trademark held by the Washington Redskins professional football team over the controversial mascot held by this organization.
This team name has longed been criticized by the Native American community for being offensive to their community. In this vein, the USPTO decided that this offensive title should not be licensed to the football team in its effort to convince them to change their team name. There has been a great deal of pressure from the American public to drop this controversial name, as it is clearly offensive to Native Americans. However, Redskins owner Dan Snyder has held firm on this, claiming that the Redskins team name is completely dissociated from Native Americans. This is definitely not true, though, since their mascot is a caricature of a Native American and since many fans and supporters come to games dressed in mockeries of traditional Native headdresses and garbs.
This is extremely interesting and relevant to the field of patents because it establishes patents as a tool to implement social change. Since patents and trademarks are necessary for licensing products, it brings up the question of whether morally questionable products should be allowed to be protected under United States intellectual property laws. Patents have the ability to influence society in the positive direction by making sure that only inventions that benefit the world can be licensed, and not inventions that offend people or cause harm to people. However, there is a negative side to this, in that we must trust the judgment of the courts in determining what is moral and immoral in terms of inventions.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/18/news/companies/patent-office-redskins/
This team name has longed been criticized by the Native American community for being offensive to their community. In this vein, the USPTO decided that this offensive title should not be licensed to the football team in its effort to convince them to change their team name. There has been a great deal of pressure from the American public to drop this controversial name, as it is clearly offensive to Native Americans. However, Redskins owner Dan Snyder has held firm on this, claiming that the Redskins team name is completely dissociated from Native Americans. This is definitely not true, though, since their mascot is a caricature of a Native American and since many fans and supporters come to games dressed in mockeries of traditional Native headdresses and garbs.
This is extremely interesting and relevant to the field of patents because it establishes patents as a tool to implement social change. Since patents and trademarks are necessary for licensing products, it brings up the question of whether morally questionable products should be allowed to be protected under United States intellectual property laws. Patents have the ability to influence society in the positive direction by making sure that only inventions that benefit the world can be licensed, and not inventions that offend people or cause harm to people. However, there is a negative side to this, in that we must trust the judgment of the courts in determining what is moral and immoral in terms of inventions.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/18/news/companies/patent-office-redskins/
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