Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is staying mum on the smoldering controversy surrounding the Washington Redskins’ nickname. But he did say he believes this week’s ruling by the US Trademark and Patent Office, stripping the Redskins of trademark protection, could serve as a real deterrent for Dan Snyder and co. to continue to use the name.
"As far as the big debate that's going on, I don't have any statement on that," Jones said, per Jarrett Bell of USA TODAY. "But as far as having team marks that aren't protected, that's a disadvantage. That would be one of the things that you'd consider if you're going to do everything that you could to promote the franchise, to promote that name. If you didn't have exclusive use of that name, then that would be a deterrent to using it."
Asked again whether he viewed the name as disparaging, Jones made clear he was only interested in discussing the issue from a business standpoint and in relation to the ruling, which came down Wednesday.
"That's a different issue, relative to that ruling," Jones said. "But they (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) make that a criteria. They say we don't give anybody copyright protection if we think it has a disparaging aspect. I understand that."
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