Did 2022 Decision Cast Doubt on the Validity of the Collegiate Merchandise Licensing Scheme Under Modern Trademark Law?

By Rishi Sehgal and Andres Munoz, of Romano Law In the modern collegiate merchandising industry, colleges and universities monetize their trademarks by agreeing with third party merchandisers to sell merchandise using the college’s marks in exchange for a percentage of that merchandiser’s sales of those goods.  Colleges do not technically ‘source’.  This creates friction with the traditional purpose of trademark law, which is to identify goods or services to consumers tha