For college basketball fans, the March Madness® NCAA
basketball tournament is a must, and this year’s first-ever
victory of a No. 16-seed team over a No. 1-seed team will probably
end up being the most talked-about event of the whole tournament,
even though the No. 16 team, the UMBC Retrievers, went on to lose
their next game. Despite that loss, the team has become a
media sensation – and according to news reports,
representatives for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
were suddenly scrambling to get trademark applications on file in
the United States for UMBC RETRIEVERS, 16 OVER 1 and RETRIEVER
NATION.
University sports licensing is big business – with reports
of nearly $5 billion dollars annually spent on US university and
college merchandise. At the heart of any licensing program are the
team names, including nicknames, logos and mascots, as well as
cheers and colour combinations. All of these qualify for trademark
protection. In the United States,
