re: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancels the Redskins trademark

quote:

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This sounds like a total violation of the 1st amendment to me.

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The government isn't saying you can't use the phrase or call your business Redskins, they're just saying you can't own Redskins as intellectual property and then sue other people that attempt to use the phrase. Actually if anything Trademarks themselves are a violation of free speech because it's the government telling you that you aren't allowed to use a phrase under penalty of law. It's a violation most of us accept and consider a good thing, but philosophically speaking, the government giving one entity a monopoly on a phrase is the antithesis of free speech.