Congress Key

As shown by the Shingle Springs Band case, federal trademark law leaves much to be desired when it comes to allowing tribes to protect their names from non-members. Moreover, many tribes "suffer significant economic loss from unauthorized copying of their traditional designs."86 The lack of action to protect intellectual property among tribes is jarring. Tribes and individual Native artists are, as previously mentioned, not well-off economically, and are unlikely to successfully defend an action for copyright or trademark infringement. Although the IACA is a fine start, it cannot be Congress's last action on the intellectual property rights of Native American tribes and their members.

Congress has taken steps to protect tangible aspects of tribal property.87 Passing legislation to protect historically important artifacts "established a fundamental principle of Native American ownership of their cultural property."88 Even so, there remains no recourse for the appropriation of cultural aspects of tribes that are intangible. This has led some tribes to protect its intangible [*12] cultural property of significance from outsiders.89 As both tangible and intangible elements of tribal culture are "essential to the survival of Indian Nations as distinctive cultural and political groups," Congress must act by altering the current intellectual property schemes within the United States.90