Not trademarks in general, mind you, but the very specific federal ones that the Washington Redskins have claimed on their name.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee’s decision affirmed an earlier ruling by the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Last year, the appeal board declared in a 2-to-1 vote that the team’s moniker is offensive to Native Americans and therefore ineligible for federal trademark protection under the Lanham Act, which bars protection for names that “may disparage” or bring people into contempt or disrepute.

Lee agreed with that assessment, rejecting the team’s argument that the vast majority of Native Americans had no objection to the name when the trademarks were granted between 1967 and 1990. Instead, the judge questioned why the team ever chose the name, pointing out in his ruling that Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defined the word as “often contemptuous” in 1898, “seventy years prior to the registration of the first Redskins Mark.”

This doesn’t mean the team can’t continue to use the name. It just means that others can copy it and the team logo if they like. Given the loathing much of the public has toward both the word and the logo, I’m not sure how many entrepreneurs might want to copy the things, but now they’re allowed to.

The team plans to appeal the decision.