It is that time of year again, coming off St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, when everyone gets on the college basketball bandwagon in the season of “MARCH MADNESS.” Brackets are being completed, college jerseys are being pulled out of mothballs, bars and restaurants are hiring extra help, and work schedules are being rearranged around televised game times so everyone can join in the fun and relive the glory days. And, just as with the frenzy surrounding the Super Bowl, there will be events of all types organized around the country to take part in the “madness.” However, as we warned you in January right before the Super Bowl, if you are planning such events, do not use “March Madness” by itself or in conjunction with other words or terms in any commercial promotions of any kind including your own events, third-party events, contests, games, product promotions, or sales unless you want the NCAA to pay you an unwanted visit.

As is SUPER BOWL, the phrase MARCH MADNESS is a federally registered trademark owned by the NCAA for use in connection with products and services related to the college basketball tournament. This gives the NCAA exclusive nationwide rights to use the term on and in connection with these goods and services and prohibits anyone else from using the term in any way that would suggest any type of association, affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, licensed status or any other connection between it and the NCAA, when in fact no such status exists. The NCAA takes this very seriously, as do its official licensed partners, who pay millions of dollars to use MARCH MADNESS in connection with their commercial promotions.

Although the NCAA was not the originator of the “March Madness” slogan, and negotiated for a number of years to acquire the federal rights to this mark, its rights are now firmly entrenched. Moreover, it is very aggressive in pursuing unauthorized uses of MARCH MADNESS or infringing versions of this mark not only to protect its own trademark rights, but to protect the rights of its licensed sponsors.

So, feel free to show your team spirit, cheer on your alma mater at the top of your lungs, wear that old jersey, and join in all the revelry, but do not engage in any advertising or promotional activity for any products or services using MARCH MADNESS or any altered version of the mark unless you have a paid sponsorship to do so.