The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons faceoff Sunday, February 5th, in a “Super Bowl”® that should be action packed and sure to entertain the masses—whether that be with the game itself or the highly anticipated commercials.
As excitement for Super Bowl LI builds, so does press coverage, sports books and advertisements. When watching commercials and certain coverage for the big day, have you ever noticed that you do not often hear the term “Super Bowl” used? That is because the National Football League (NFL®) has a trademark and copyright on the term as well as “Super Sunday”®. The NFL polices their trademarks vigorously and are not afraid to send a cease-and-desist letter to those who infringe on it.
Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indiana can attest to the NFL’s stringent enforcement of their trademark as they learned firsthand just how strict they are. In 2007, the NFL sent the church a cease-and-desist letter for selling tickets to a “Super Bowl” party to support their hometown team, the Indianapolis Colts. The church was shocked and canceled the party. The NFL later clarified some items in regard to the church incident. They said “Super Bowl” viewing parties are not the issue, the issue is when admission is charged to view the game and NFL and Super Bowl logos are displayed without permission; they do not want people to wrongly infer a connection.
There are certain exceptions to this rule such as “nominative fair use”, a necessary, factual reference that does not imply an endorsement or a source of goods like a television ad. Late Show host Stephen Colbert has found a comical workaround to use the term while not infringing on it. Colbert likes to use “Superb Owl”, where factual information about owls is mixed in with highlights and analysis of the big game. Another organization hosted a “souper bowl” party and asked for canned soup donations to give to the local food pantry in exchange for admittance to watch the game. Twitter and other social media platforms have popularized the use of hashtags and it would appear that using the hashtag #SuperBowl can be acceptable if used to join in a conversation and not to affiliate it with an endorsement or brand.
While many may be annoyed by the NFL’s trademark protection of “Super Bowl”, it does provide the NFL leverage to negotiate lucrative deals with those who want to be official sponsors and purchase ad space for the game. In 2010, Budweiser signed a six-year deal to be a sponsor of the “Super Bowl”; that deal cost an estimated $1 billion. They extended the sponsorship through 2022 which cost them a total of $1.4 billion. The commercials will reach over 112 million viewers and companies wanting to benefit from that large audience can purchase ad space; a 30 second ad will cost around $5 million at minimum.
With all this information and growing excitement for the big game there is just one question to be asked. “Are you ready for some football?”®¹
¹ “Are you ready for some football” trademark owner, ABC Sports, Inc., Corp.