Does the NFL Have the Best IP Cops?

At the Freakonomics blog, Steven J. Dubner wonders at the absence of Washington Redskins memorabilia in a gift store into which he wandered in Washington, DC. Here's his story: "Today, I went to a huge souvenir store in D.C. . . . There was a great variety of very very cheap shirts and hats sporting the logos of the F.B.I., the C.I.A. . . . etc. But there didn’t seem to be a single item of Washington Redskins paraphernalia. I asked at the counter . . . did the clerk think that, perhaps, I was from the N.F.L.’s licensing division and was trying to find out if she had any unlicensed Redskins stuff? It didn’t seem to make sense that the store wouldn’t carry any Redskins paraphernalia—they had everything else you could imagine, including shirts for the Washington Nationals and the Georgetown Hoyas. . . . is it possible that stores like this (and/or their suppliers) are not afraid of selling knockoff U.S. Government merchandise or knockoff MLB merchandise but that they are afraid of selling knockoff NFL merchandise? Is it possible that the N.F.L. is more feared, even in Washington, than the U.S. Government?"

The Wonkette thinks the store may have just found the name "Redskins" offensive.

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