FedEx's venue naming-rights deal currently is not scheduled to expire until '26getty images
FedEx notified the Redskins in a July 2 letter that unless the team changes its name, the company will "remove its signage from the stadium after the NFL's 2020 season, six years before the deal's expiration," according to Liz Clarke of the WASHINGTON POST. The two-page letter was emailed the same day FedEx publicly acknowledged in a one-sentence statement that it had communicated its "request" that the team change its name. The private letter is "more detailed and pointed," and it noted that the "team's name, which it never cited, poses the risk of harming FedEx's brand reputation and is inconsistent with its commitment to a more inclusive society." The FedEx letter and the company's public statement "set in motion the fast-moving events that appear to have forced" team Owner Dan Snyder's hand (WASHINGTON POST, 7/10).
TRADEMARK EFFORTS: In DC, Matthew Paras notes Snyder, through a holding company, "abandoned his pursuit of obtaining a trademark for the term 'Warriors' in 2019 and ultimately lost the chance for registering the mark earlier this year -- a move that could complicate the team's potential rebrand as officials conduct a review of its name." Records from the USPTO showed that Snyder "had an opportunity to trademark 'Warriors' last year, after the reopening of a 2007 case in which he filed to own the moniker." But Snyder "did not respond to the trademark office, answer an opposition claim or file an appeal when the judgement was issued against his holding company, Washington Football Inc." The Redskins "could face a string of opposition in their path to secure a new name." Their primary threat is "trademark squatters -- people who register a host of trademarks to potentially be bought out by bigger companies." Experts said that that concept "could slow the process as the Redskins try to move to rebrand, perhaps before the scheduled start of the 2020 season in less than two months." Under Washington Football Inc., Snyder has "applied for Warriors-related trademarks three times" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 7/10).
