Name, image and likeness (NIL) has become a household turn of phrase when it comes to athletes safeguarding their brand with their goals of building financial security.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Government\u2019s Patent and Trademark Office is in Pittsburgh for the NFL Draft through Saturday, and America\u2019s Branding Agency hopes to provide an on-site NIL and trademark educational presence for athletes, families, creators and anyone building their personal brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung athletes know the work it takes to perfect control over mind, body and spirit for peak performance,\u201d said John A. Squires, Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the USPTO.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs coach Nick Saban has famously said, \u2018You don\u2019t practice until you get it right, you practice until you can\u2019t get it wrong.\u2019 Personal brand protection starts as early as your training day, and in the era of NIL and artificial intelligence deepfakes, it needs to be part of your equipment. We can help.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the first time the USPTO has established something like this as a major professional sports event.<\/p>\n
Fans can visit the USPTO\u2019s education booth inside the NFL Draft Experience at the SportsWorks building alongside the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibit across from Acrisure Stadium. There will be resources available on how trademarks work, common pitfalls to avoid and how to reduce impersonation risk.<\/p>\n
Squires said the initiative is designed to reach not only athletes and their families, but also fans, influencers and anyone building a personal brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cDraft week is a key moment when identity becomes a business asset for hundreds of athletes and their families,\u201d Squires said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure people understand the basics of brand protection before they need them, not after something goes wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing the educational initiative at the NFL Draft, Squires will lead a one-hour World IP Day panel conversation, \u201cAuthenticity \u2014 the Name of the Game,\u201d at 10 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
The panel will include three-time U.S. Paralympian gold medalist Jack Wallace; Reggie Calhoun Jr., director of NIL and revenue sharing for Colorado football and the founder and managing director of ProStrat Innovations; and Chelsea Mikolajcik, a strategy and compensation consultant, NIL advisor and founder of MIKO services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful to the (NFL) and the City of Pittsburgh for hosting America\u2019s Branding Agency\u2019s special education broadcast, with an all-star panel live from the 2026 NFL Draft,\u201d said Squires, himself a former Division I football player and a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.<\/p>\n
The discussion, Squires said, will focus on the fundamentals of federally registered trademark protection in an era where NIL is increasingly valuable and also vulnerable.<\/p>\n
The USPTO\u2019s initiative is designed to inform with practical guidance and official resources that will help those entering or already in the world of NIL protect themselves from the dangers of AI advances which hope to harm reputations while they are building brands, signing endorsement deals and monetizing their identities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your profile rises, the risk of misuse rises with it,\u201d Squires said. \u201cWe are not here to give legal advice. We are here to give people the basics so they can make informed decisions and know where to go for help.\u201d<\/p>\n
The USPTO encourages anyone interested in learning more about trademarks and brand protection to visit uspto.gov\/TrademarkBasics<\/a>, uspto.gov\/trademarks\/basics\/why-hire-private-trademark-attorney<\/a> and uspto.gov\/NIL<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Name, image and likeness (NIL) has become a household turn of phrase when it comes to athletes safeguarding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-174041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}