Washington NFL Team Facing Off With Fan Who Stockpiled Trademarks

Martin McCaulay has filed for 44 different trademark applications of potential team names

Daniel Synder Wishes Press Conference Happy Thanksgiving
Owner Daniel Snyder of the Washington Football Team. (George Gojkovich/Getty)
Getty Images

While there are rumors of plenty of problems facing Washington’s football team, there is at least one that has been confirmed, and his name is Martin McCaulay.

McCaulay, a 61-year-old fan of Washington’s NFL team from Alexandria, started filing for trademarks for potential team names in 2014 when he noticed other people filing applications.

Since paying $275 to register for the “Washington Pigskins,” McCaulay has filed 43 more trademark applications for team names and owns nicknames like the Washington Red Wolves, Red Tails, Monuments, Veterans, Red-tailed Hawks, Americans, Freedom Fighters and Radskins.

Once word began to spread about McCaulay’s trademark assets, social media users who assumed he was going to stand in the way of the Redskins changing their name called him everything from a troll to a gold digger — and much worse.

But, according to McCaulay, he is willing to give up his trademarks for free or for a fee as low as $1 and has even retained legal help to facilitate the process.

“He’s not looking to be a thorn in the side of the Washington NFL organization,” McCaulay’s lawyer Darren Heitner said of his client to The Washington Post. “He will do whatever is necessary to step aside and provide the team with whatever rights it needs, if it’s interested in any of the names he’s applied for or registered.”

According to what McCaulay has posted on Twitter, all it will take is a simple call from Daniel Synder to Heitner as he genuinely wants the team name to be changed and has no intention of standing in the way of that happening.

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