Bring Your Own Trademark: Compensating College Football Players Through Trademark Royalties

Abstract

College football players deserve compensation for the value they create in the sport. The National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") Amateurism Rule, however, prohibits paying student-athletes, while coaches earn millions of dollars per year. A potential solution to combat this inequality is for universities to collect intellectual property licensing royalties from coaches and use that money toward compensating players. Additionally, college athletes should be informed about their right to trademark and should collect their own trademark licensing royalties in accordance with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's decision in O'Bannon v. NCAA in 2015.