Urban Outfitters sold 'Navajo panties' — the Nation trademarked the name in 1943

The Navajo Nation had registered 'Navajo' as a trademark in 1943. Urban Outfitters had used the word on some products from 2001, but in 2011 it built a collection around it — the 'Navajo Hipster Panty,' the 'Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask,' the 'Peace Treaty Feather Necklace,' the 'Staring at Stars Skull Native Headdress T-shirt.' Sasha Houston Brown of the Santee Sioux Nation wrote to chief executive Glen Senk at launch: the products 'make a mockery of our identity and unique cultures.' The collection stayed on sale.

The Nation demanded the line stop, and in February 2012 filed suit in federal court in New Mexico: trademark infringement, plus the Indian Arts and Crafts Act — a federal law that bars marketing goods as Native American-made when they are not. The Nation argued the name traded unfairly against goods made by its own artisans. Urban Outfitters answered that 'Navajo' had become a style, a generic descriptor; in April 2016, the federal judge rejected that defence and let the case go forward.

In November 2016 the parties settled — confidential terms, the case dismissed with prejudice. Urban Outfitters signed a supply and licence agreement and acknowledged the validity of the Nation's trademark; the two announced a future collaboration on Native American jewellery. President Russell Begaye: 'We expect that any company considering the use of the Navajo name, or our designs or motifs, will ask us for our permission.' The episode joined the Ganesh duvet cover and the keffiyeh sold as an 'anti-war woven scarf' in the retailer's list of pulled products.