The Super Bowl Forever Altered The World Of IP

How the mother of all football games became the most vigilantly guarded brand name in America.

- Robert Klara

One of the most important plays in football history was made on March 7, 1969, though it didn’t take place on a field anywhere. It happened at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where the claims examiners received registration No. 882283 from an office at 345 Park Ave. in New York: The National Football League was applying for a trademark for the term “Super Bowl.”

Nine months later, the NFL got its trademark—and the world of intellectual property has never been the same. The Super Bowl is, of course, a very important football game. But for the NFL, and for companies that can afford its advertising and sponsorship rates, the Super Bowl is something more. It’s a brand. An imperious, monumental, profitable brand: By one estimate, the value of “Super Bowl” the brand stood at $663 million in 2017.