Do American Indian tribes trademark their names? Does Jeep Cherokee pay a royalty to the Cherokee Nation? Do the manufacturers of the Apache four seater airplane have to pay a royalty to the Apaches? If none of the tribes have their names trademarked, could they get them trademarked?
It’s just that I’ve been wondering if Jeep (or whoever it was that bought them out – Chrysler, was it?) has to pay royalties for the use of the Cherokee name. If they don’t, they should.
(Yeah, yeah, I know, I’ve got way too much time on my hands …)
The Cherokee Nation has trademarked its official seal. I found one for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. It’s trademark serial # 75481065
The informaiton on the registration says it is a service mark and covers services associated with the Cherokee Nation, like municipal services and tourism. So someone else can’t set up an official-looking Cherokee organization using this seal without permission. Jeep isn’t doing that. It’s selling a vehicle.
I don’t think any nationality can trademark its name. However, there are provisions in U.S. law which prevent using any trademark that may be considered racist and the Washington Redskins are involved in a lot of litigation over that because the USPTO rejected its last Federal trademark claim.
That said, the above paragraph is fodder for GD, where it already has been discussed to death.
Not too long ago, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua sued the latest inheritors of the Indian motorcycle trademark. This site seems to be devoted to the nuts and bolts of the issue:
Many Indian tribes have tried to control the rights to their name. However, the reason for this is probably not the one that first comes to mind. I am familiar with three cases in which a tribal government has been impersonated by other entities using similar or identical tribal names in an attempt to either usurp the leadership and membership of the original tribe or to parasitically receive government funding from unsuspecting government agencies.
In one case, a rival tribal entity patented the original’s name, filed as a corporation under that name, reserved the tribal name as .com, .org, and .net websites, requested government funding from numerous agencies, and then claimed the original group was a “breakaway faction” of the impersonator.