Earlier today, news emerged that the Commanders’ application for federal trademark protection was rejected. Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who posted the information on Twitter, expressed a belief that, eventually, the Commanders would secure the protections they seek.
The Commanders believe that, too.
“The trademark office’s recent nonfinal office action is an ordinary course step in the standard trademark registration process,” a team spokesperson told PFT. “We will respond to the Trademark Office’s office action and are confident that our registration will be issued.
“In particular, there is no likelihood of confusion between our COMMANDERS marks and the COMMANDERS’ CLASSIC football game between the Army and the Air Force. We do not believe that any trademark registrations that were obtained by squatters who attempted to capitalize on the Club’s name change should stand in the way of our registrations.”
The squatter in question, Martin McCaulay, has said he will surrender the trademarks to the team.
So, yes, it appears that, in time, this will be resolved to the satisfaction of the team. Assuming that new ownership of the team wishes to even keep the current name.