From prestonh@home.com Tue Jan 19 10:32:18 1999 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.1+UW98.09/8.9.1+UW98.09) with ESMTP id KAA39886 for ; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:32:18 -0800 Received: from ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com (ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com [24.0.2.66]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.2+UW99.01/8.9.2+UW99.01) with ESMTP id KAA27701 for ; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:32:17 -0800 (PST) Received: from C17639-A ([24.0.234.140]) by ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com (Netscape Mail Server v2.02) with SMTP id AAA17672 for ; Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:32:03 -0800 X-Sender: prestonh@mail X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:31:42 -0800 To: indknow@u.washington.edu From: "Preston D. Hardison" Subject: Patent & Trademark Office Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: <19990119183203.AAA17672@C17639-A> Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 12:23:29 -0500 To: nativenews@mLists.net From: Ish Subject: Re: Patent & Trademark Office >From: cdavids@flint.umich.edu >Organization: The University of Michigan - Flint >To: letters@knews.com, publisher@knews.com, kns@knoxnews.com >Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 12:13:08 EDT >Subject: (Fwd) Re: Patent & Trademark Office Please forward the following information to as many American Indian groups as possible. The deadline for response is February 12, 1999. Contact information follows. I will be sending copies of Roberto Rodriguez's column "Plotting the Assassination of Little Red Sambo" from Black Issues in Higher Education magazine along with a copy of Charlene Teter's editorials from Indian Artist Today magazine. I will also send a copy of all the Michigan high school teams that use American Indian names and mascots. Please respond to this as soon as possible. Catherine Davids Flint, Michigan *************************************** On October 29, 1998 President Clinton signed Public Law 105-330. This law requires that the United States Patent & Trademark office study a variety of issues surrounding trademark protection for the official insignia of federally and/or state recognized Native American tribes. *************************************** Government regulations and law can be tricky, and the wording of these regulations can be ultimately confusing and sometimes have a devestating impact on particular groups of people regardless of the intent of the words. When I first read Public Law 105-330 it was confusing and so I e-mailed Eleanor Meltzer who is the Attorney-Advisor for the Office of Legislative and International Affairs at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). My questions and concerns related to the on-going legal battles that various American Indian groups are having with corporations like the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians. I wondered if Public Law would somehow end up protecting Corporate America's bigoted use of our names and images...regardless of whether it is a sports team mascot or a corporate icon such as Jeep Cherokee. Rather than e-mailing a response...Ms. Meltzer phoned me and we had a very interesting phone conversation. Public Law 105-330 is not talking about words...it is talking specifically about insignia's. For example: in the southwest there are some tribes who use Kachinas for various purposes. We identify those tribes because of the Kachina...that is what they use. In the northwest there are some tribes who use totem poles to tell of family, clan, and tribal histories. It is these traditional symbols and insignias that the USPTO is trying to protect on behalf of the tribes. The USPTO does not currently have a data base of images that tribes use. I do not believe the law would affect the use of images of buffalo and eagles but it would most definately protect images specific to American Indian people. It could prevent any corporation or sports team from using our names and images. The USPTO already has a comprehensive list of tribes who have registered their insignias...especially from tribes with casinos who had a design created especially for these purposes. Anything that is already trademarked is not going to be included in Public Law 105-330 because they are already protected. Now...here comes the interesting part. Names might be included if the American Indian people respond to the question of how names and images are used. For instance: the Cherokee people are represented by their name, it is their designation. To have it used for any other purpose creates a false association. Are Jeep Cherokees made on the Cherokee reservation? Are Jeep Cherokees produced by Cherokee people? Do the Cherokee people receive a substantial royalty for every Jeep Cherokee produced and sold? Does Target Clothing Stores pay a royalty for every Cherokee piece of clothing they sell? A name can be part of a symbol, and can be included as part of an insignia (eg: on a flag or corporate logo). The USPTO under the direction of Eleanor Meltzer is conducting a study of this issue. The deadline is February 12, 1999. This is less than one month away. Ms. Meltzer would like to hear from as many American Indian people as possible about this issue. Please check out this web site: http://www.USPTO.gov Scroll down to RFC: Official Insignia of Native American Tribes: Statutorilly Required Study. Eleanor K. Meltzer, Attorney Advisor Office of Legislative and International Affairs U.S. Patent & Trademark Office 2121 Crystal Drive - Suite 902 Arlington, Virginia 22202 You can send her letters or any data that would reinforce our concern about the stereotypical use of our names and images and/or information about tribal insignias. She can also be e-mailed at: NAFedRegNotice@USPTO.gov .