MURRAY CHASS – An Identity Crisis May Loom in Washington – The Times
Here is the original column that spawned Brad’s comment about the ESPN article. This has been known in the Natmosphere for a while now.

The long story-short is that a company called Bygone Sports (you may have seen their ads on washtimes.com) was formed in 2002 to trademark the name Washington Nationals. It is not a leap of logic to assume that they did this in anticipation of getting paid off by MLB in the event the name was ever used. MLB believed they had a verbal agreement to work it out, but apparently not, so Bygone sued and MLB countersued.

My prediction — an out of court settlement, terms not disclosed. Of course, knowing MLB, they might say “Forget about it and change the name to Senators”, which would make Mayor Anthony Williams (and plenty others) unhappy. Maybe they’ll take the District to arbitration too, since poisoning the well is what they excel at over all else.