United States today
It’s been a seismic off-season for the Washington Commanders. Most importantly, the franchise is on the verge of getting a new owner as Josh Harris’ group reached an agreement to buy the team for $6.05 billion. After the other NFL owners agree to the sale, this new regime could face an evolving situation regarding the team’s name. The United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the franchise’s application to use the nickname “Washington Commanders” as a trademark.
Specifically, the application was rejected for two reasons. The first reason was “risk of confusion” with the “Commanders’ Classic” – an annual college football game between the Air Force and Army – which was already trademarked. The other stems from a pending application from Martin McCaulay, a DC-area man who filed trademarks to guess the new team name. The “Washington Space Commanders” and “Washington Wolf Commanders” are two of several trademark applications filed by McCaulay that contributed to this rejection for the NFL franchise.
Washington began its name-change process back in July 2020, when it decided to retire the “Redskins” nickname that had been associated with the team since 1933. At this point, the franchise was called The Washington Football Team for two seasons. (2020-2021) as a replacement until they settled on a permanent nickname. This happened in February 2022 when they revealed the “Commanders” moniker.
So what happens now? As Trademark attorney Josh Gerben notesthe team could file a response with the USPTO arguing that confusion with the Commanders’ Classic game is unlikely. They could also try to buy out the rights to the game or sign a coexistence agreement. With McCaulay, he told the Washington Post back in July 2020 that he would give away any stamps the team might need for free.
Of course, we now have to see whether McCaulay stands by those comments now that the matter has been given the all-clear.
From the Commander’s point of view, they seem confident that they can secure a mark for the nickname.
“The Trademark Office’s recent non-final complaint is a common step in the standard trademark registration process,” a team spokesman told Pro Football Talk. “We will respond to the Trademark Office’s lawsuit and are confident that our registration will be granted. In particular, there is no likelihood of confusion between our COMMANDERS brands and the COMMANDERS’ CLASSIC football game between the Army and the Air Force. We do.” I don’t think trademark registrations received from squatters trying to capitalize on the club’s name change should stand in the way of our registrations.
So it looks like all paths lead to Commanders getting their desired mark. However, it would be an intriguing turn of events if this situation opened the door for this new group of owners to change names all over again if they aren’t smitten with the ‘Commanders’ moniker.