The Washington Commanders could be forced to change their team name for the third time in three years after losing their trademark appeal.
It was recently confirmed by a US trademark attorney that that US Patent and Trademark Office has denied the Washington football franchise to trademark the name 'Commanders'.
This could force new owners, fronted by NBA legend Magic Johnson to look to change the name - which would also be the fourth different in the last five seasons.
Johnson and a consortium completed the purchase of the Washington football team earlier this month with a reported fee of $6billion - the most expensive fee for a franchise in sports history.
They might now be forced into a big change early on after losing their appeal to trademark the 'Commanders' name. The reported reason for the denial was the existence of a trademark already in place for 'Commanders Classic' - which is the annual college football game between the Army and Air Force.
As well as this, another reason had been because of a 'pending application field by a man in the DC area'. This is said to be in reference to an Irish Historian, Martin McCauley who is in the process of filing for trademarks for 'Washington Space Commanders' and 'Washington Wolf Commanders'.
The new ownership can attempt to appeal the decision and fight to trademark the Commanders, but could also look to find a new name to create build a new legacy in a total rebrand.
That would come just over a year after their high-profile rebrand to the Commanders. The historic franchise eventually dropped their old name, the Washington Redskins, after years of pressure from Native American groups who deemed the name offensive. After dropping that name in 2020, they were simply known as the 'Washington Football team' in the 2020 and 2021 seasons as they considered their new permanent identity.
In a Yahoo Sports poll back in 2020 in which 91,000 of fans voted, the two clear leaders had been the 'Washington RedTails' and 'Washington Warriors' - with the latter being exceedingly popular across social media. However, they opted to become the Commanders - a name fans didn't seem to be too keen on at the time and which has now encountered trademarking difficulties.
