Intellectual Property Law

Something to ponder with your students when teaching the ?Harjo? case in Trademark law.

By Ann Bartow

A soccer team in Amsterdam has the nickname “the Jews.” As this blogger notes:

This would be a great example to use in a discussion of sports mascots, particularly how it compares to American Indian mascots (for examples, see this post) and Notre Dame?s Fighting Irish mascot (see post here). Critics of American Indian mascots often ask questions along the lines of ?What would happen if a team called itself the Fighting Jews?? (see here and here for examples of this rhetorical strategy), but it?s always presented as an unimaginable, completely hypothetical situation. And yet it turns out not to be so hypothetical after all. My guess is students would generally have a much more negative reaction to the Ajax Jews than to teams like the Washington Redskins, and it would be useful to discuss why that might be (keeping in mind that fans of teams playing against teams with Indian mascots sometimes use images that depict violence against Indians).

As the linked post also mentions, fans sometimes display the Israeli flag to show support for the team:

And fans of opposing teams hurl antisemitic slurs.

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Full post as published by Madisonian.net on December 11, 2008 (boomark / email).