Blog: How to Get Sued During March Madness®

If you happen on a tavern or restaurant this week offering special deals on food or drinks in connection with the NCAA men's or women's basketball tournaments, you're likely to find some hilariously twisted language on menus and banners, as local entrepreneurs attempt not to step on any of the NCAA's 35 trademarks associated with, um, March Madness®. If they do let a "Sweet 16®" or two slip, they'll be hearing from the association's attorneys, but quick.

March Madness® is actually one of the few to which the NCAA doesn't hold full rights - the Illinois High School Association famously went one on one with the bullies from the NCAA in court, trying to protect its rights to the phrase, which it had been using since the 1930s but hadn't attempted to trademark until the 1990s. (The IHSA in 1996 won in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit against an NCAA licensee that actually legally owned the trademark - long story - leading to a dual-use trademark that IHSA and NCAA use for three shared phrases.)

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