Cleveland Indians facing trademark battle over name

A US baseball team is facing a multi-billion dollar lawsuit demanding its “offensive” name and trademarks are cancelled, just days after the Washington Redskins fell foul of a similar lawsuit.

The Cleveland Indians are facing calls from the People Not Mascots (PNM) group to change their name and logo.

PNM is seeking $9 billion to cover what it estimates the team has made from its name and brand.

According to broadcaster CBS, Robert Roche, a director at both PNM and the American Indian Education Center, will file the lawsuit next month.

The move comes more than a week after the US Patent and Trademark Office stripped the Washington Redskins, an NFL team, of six trademarks, all of which are variations of the word “Redskin”. The office ruled that it is a disparaging term.

The NFL club has announced it will appeal against the decision, which came about after a different group of Native Americans, including Oneida Indian Nation, complained that the word was offensive.

The forthcoming lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians will take a similar approach and demand that the club loses its trademarks.

In it, PNM will point to the political incorrectness of the “Indians” name as well as the logo, a caricature of a Native American called Chief Wahoo with a bright red face.

“We’re going to be asking for $9 billion and we’re basing it on a hundred years of disparity, racism, exploitation and profiteering,” Roche was quoted as saying, adding, “It’s been offensive since day one.”

Roche said that should PNM win damages, they would go towards the “many underfunded” services for Native Americans in Cleveland and the rest of Ohio.

The lawsuit could result in the team losing their rights to the name.

In the Washington Redskins case, the team’s six trademarks will still be valid pending the club’s appeal against the ruling.

The Cleveland Indians did not comment.