A Seismic Shift in College Sports and Brand Partnerships

The arrival of Name, Image, and Likeness rights has fundamentally changed the legal landscape of college sports. For the first time in the history of NCAA athletics, student-athletes can monetize their personal brand, signing endorsement deals, partnering with local businesses and national sponsors, launching their own ventures, and building commercial presences across social media platforms, without sacrificing their eligibility.

But with that opportunity comes a legal complexity that neither athletes nor the brands pursuing them are always prepared to navigate. At the center of that complexity is intellectual property law. NIL rights do not exist in a vacuum. They interact with trademark law, copyright law, right of publicity statutes, NCAA rules, state law, and federal law in ways that can determine whether a NIL deal creates lasting value or lasting liability.

This article breaks down the intersection of NIL intellectual property law, what student-athletes and their representatives need to understand about protecting and monetizing NIL rights, and how brands can structure partnerships that are both compliant and commercially sound.

What Are NIL Rights and Why Do They Matter?

NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) refers to the bundle of rights an individual holds in their own identity. An athlete's name, their image, their likeness, their voice, their signature, and their personal brand are all components of NIL. For college athletes, these rights were historically controlled (and frequently monetized) by universities and the NCAA, while the athletes themselves received nothing.

The rule changes that began in 2021, following years of antitrust litigation and mounting legal pressure, dismantled the NCAA's amateurism framework as it applied to athlete compensation. Today, student-athletes at every level of collegiate competition (Division I and beyond) can enter into NIL contracts, receive endorsement compensation or sponsorship deals, and partner with brands, NIL collectives, and businesses of all sizes.

The right of publicity and the legal right to control the commercial use of one's own identity is the foundational concept underlying NIL rights. It is recognized under state law in the majority of US states, though the scope and strength of that protection varies significantly by jurisdiction. There is no uniform federal law governing the right of publicity, which means that the legal framework applicable to any given NIL deal depends in part on where the athlete is located, where the brand operates, and where the NIL activities will take place.

The Role of Intellectual Property Law in NIL Deals

Intellectual property is not a single legal concept. It is a family of distinct protections, each with its own registration requirements, enforcement mechanisms, and strategic applications. For student-athletes and the brands that partner with them, understanding which IP tools are available, and how they interact with NIL rights, is essential to building a defensible and commercially valuable position.

Trademark Law and the Athlete's Personal Brand

A trademark protects any word, name, symbol, or device used to identify the source of goods or services and distinguish them from others. For a college athlete with a growing public profile, their name, a nickname, a signature phrase, or a personal logo may all be candidates for trademark protection through the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office).

Registering a trademark with the USPTO provides the strongest available protection against unauthorized use of a student-athlete's brand identity, and it establishes a public record of ownership that can be critical in disputes with brands, NIL collectives, or other parties that attempt to use the athlete's identity without authorization or beyond the scope of an NIL contract.

Trademark registration is not instantaneous. The process typically takes 12 to 18 months and requires demonstrating that the mark is being used in commerce or that there is a bona fide intent to use it. For student-athletes who anticipate significant NIL opportunities, beginning the trademark process early, before high-profile NIL deals are signed, is a meaningful form of brand protection.

There is also the question of potential conflicts between an athlete's personal brand and their university's trademark rights. Can student-athletes incorporate their school's name, logo, or colors into their own NIL activities? NCAA NIL policy and individual university guidelines vary on this point, and NIL contracts should address it explicitly. Brands structuring NIL deals should understand that using university intellectual property without a separate license from the institution is a distinct legal issue from the athlete's own NIL rights.

Copyright Law and Content Creation

Copyright law protects original creative works, including videos, photographs, social media posts, written content, and other original expression. For student-athletes who generate content as part of their NIL activities, copyright is immediately relevant.

Copyright attaches automatically at the moment of creation; no registration is required for the protection to exist. However, registering a copyright with the US Copyright Office creates a public record and is a prerequisite to filing a federal infringement lawsuit. For athletes whose content is regularly shared, repurposed, or reproduced across social media platforms without authorization, copyright registration is a low-cost form of brand protection with meaningful enforcement value.

NIL contracts should address copyright ownership explicitly. When a brand commissions content from an athlete (a sponsored post, a video endorsement, a promotional appearance), the default copyright rule does not necessarily vest ownership in the brand. Without clear contractual language assigning or licensing the relevant copyright, disputes over who owns the content and how it can be used after the NIL deal concludes are common.

Right of Publicity and State Law Variations

The right of publicity is the cornerstone of NIL intellectual property law, but its application is far from uniform. Some states have robust right of publicity statutes with significant remedies for unauthorized commercial use. Others rely on common law. A small number of states provide very limited protection.

For college athletes navigating NIL opportunities across state lines, competing in one state, enrolled in another, partnering with brands operating nationally, the interaction between different state laws creates genuine legal complexity. NIL contracts that do not address governing law, jurisdiction, and the scope of the right of publicity being licensed are contracts waiting to generate disputes.

High school athletes are a growing participant in the NIL landscape as well, as state law in many jurisdictions now permits NIL activities at the pre-collegiate level. The legal framework applicable to high school NIL activities differs from college athlete NIL in important respects, including the role of NCAA eligibility rules, the athlete's age and capacity to contract, and the involvement of parents or guardians in NIL deals.

NCAA Rules, Eligibility, and NIL Policy

Student-athletes and their representatives must understand that NIL rights operate within, not outside of, the NCAA's regulatory framework. NCAA NIL rules establish the conditions under which NIL activities are permissible without affecting eligibility, and violations of those rules can have consequences that no amount of intellectual property protection will remedy.

NCAA NIL policy currently prohibits pay-for-play arrangements: NIL deals that are in substance compensation for athletic performance rather than genuine commercial use of an athlete's identity. It also restricts boosters and NIL collectives from using NIL payments as a recruiting inducement in ways that violate NCAA rules, though the enforcement landscape in this area continues to evolve rapidly.

Division I institutions have their own compliance offices and NIL policies that student-athletes are expected to follow, and many require disclosure of NIL contracts or advance review of proposed deals. Brands structuring NIL partnerships with college athletes should build NCAA compliance review into their contracting process, not as an afterthought but as a foundational step.

State law adds another layer. Many states have enacted NIL laws that govern athlete rights, university obligations, and the permissible scope of NIL activities within their borders. These state-level frameworks do not always align neatly with NCAA NIL policy, creating a patchwork legal landscape that requires jurisdiction-specific analysis.

What Should NIL Contracts Cover?

The NIL contract is where intellectual property rights, commercial interests, and legal compliance intersect most directly. A well-drafted NIL agreement protects both the athlete and the brand, and a poorly drafted one creates exposure for both.

At minimum, NIL contracts for student-athletes should address the scope of the NIL rights being licensed (name, image, likeness, social media handle, voice, or some combination), the permitted commercial uses of those rights, the duration of the license, exclusivity or non-exclusivity in specific product categories or markets, compensation structure, ownership of content created during the partnership, representations and warranties about the athlete's eligibility and compliance with NCAA NIL rules, termination rights, and governing law.

Endorsement deals involving social media content should specify platform, post frequency, disclosure requirements under FTC guidelines, content approval processes, and what happens to existing posts if the NIL contract is terminated.

NIL collectives (organizations that pool resources to facilitate NIL opportunities for college athletes at specific institutions) present their own contractual and intellectual property considerations. Athletes engaging with NIL collectives should understand the structure of those arrangements and ensure that any rights they grant are clearly scoped and terminable.

Protecting NIL Rights in the Digital Age

Unauthorized use of a student-athlete's name, image, or likeness is not a theoretical risk. It is a recurring reality, particularly across social media platforms where content travels faster than legal process. Brand protection in the NIL context requires both proactive legal structure and active monitoring.

Proactive measures include trademark registration of the athlete's name and personal brand, copyright registration of original content, clear contractual language in all NIL deals addressing unauthorized use and remedies, and platform-level enforcement through DMCA takedown procedures where applicable.

Active monitoring, using digital tools to track unauthorized commercial use of an athlete's name, image, or likeness across the internet and social media, is an increasingly standard component of personal brand management for high-profile college athletes and the agencies that represent them.

For brands, due diligence before entering NIL deals should include confirming that the athlete actually holds the rights they are purporting to license, verifying NCAA and state law compliance, and assessing whether any existing NIL contracts include exclusivity provisions that would conflict with the proposed partnership.

The University's Role in NIL and Intellectual Property Education

Universities occupy a distinctive position in the NIL landscape. They are at once the institutions whose trademark rights are most frequently implicated in athlete brand partnerships, and the organizations with the most direct access to student-athletes at the moment they are first navigating NIL opportunities, often for the first time.

Forward-thinking athletic programs and general counsel offices have responded to the NIL rule changes by developing educational resources, compliance frameworks, and access to legal advice designed to help student-athletes understand their intellectual property rights, evaluate NIL deals, and avoid the most common pitfalls. This is not merely altruistic. Universities have a direct institutional interest in ensuring that their athletes' NIL activities are compliant with NCAA rules and consistent with the university's own trademark rights.

Student-athletes who do not receive this kind of support from their institutions should seek it elsewhere: through sports law attorneys, athlete agents registered under applicable state law, or resources like the NBI CLE webinar Brand Play: Name, Image, and Likeness Legal Essentials with Dorna Taylor, led by Dorna J. Taylor, a seasoned sports attorney and general counsel for NBA Hall of Famer Julius "Dr. J" Erving. The program provides attorneys and advisors with the substantive NIL and intellectual property knowledge needed to confidently represent college athletes and negotiate successful brand partnerships in this rapidly evolving space.

Frequently Asked Questions About NIL Intellectual Property Law

What Is NIL in the Context of Intellectual Property Law?

NIL stands for Name, Image, and Likeness, the bundle of identity rights that student-athletes now hold to monetize their personal brand through endorsement deals, social media partnerships, and other commercial NIL activities. Intellectual property law (including trademark, copyright, and right of publicity doctrine) governs how these rights are protected, licensed, and enforced in NIL contracts and brand partnerships.

Can Student-Athletes Trademark Their Name or Personal Brand?

Yes. Student-athletes can apply to register their name, nickname, logo, or signature phrase as a trademark through the USPTO, provided the mark is being used in commerce or there is a bona fide intent to use it. Trademark registration provides the strongest available protection against unauthorized commercial use and is an important brand protection tool for athletes with significant NIL opportunities.

What Is the Right of Publicity and How Does It Relate to NIL?

The right of publicity is the legal right to control the commercial use of one's own name, image, and likeness. It is the foundational legal concept underlying NIL rights. The right of publicity is governed primarily by state law, and its scope varies significantly across jurisdictions. Student-athletes licensing their NIL rights in brand partnerships are, in legal terms, licensing their right of publicity for specified commercial uses.

Do NCAA NIL Rules Affect Intellectual Property Rights?

NCAA NIL rules govern the conditions under which student-athletes can engage in NIL activities without affecting their eligibility, but they do not override or supersede the intellectual property rights that athletes hold under applicable state and federal law. Athletes and brands must comply with both the NCAA's NIL policy framework and the relevant intellectual property and right of publicity laws in their jurisdiction.

What Should a NIL Contract Include to Protect Intellectual Property Rights?

A well-drafted NIL contract should clearly define the scope of NIL rights being licensed, the permitted commercial uses, duration, exclusivity terms, content ownership, compensation, FTC disclosure obligations for social media content, NCAA compliance representations, termination rights, and remedies for unauthorized use. Vague or incomplete NIL contracts are the most common source of intellectual property disputes in the NIL context.

How Can College Athletes Protect Their NIL Rights on Social Media?

College athletes can protect their NIL rights on social media through a combination of trademark registration of their personal brand, copyright registration of original content, clear contractual language in NIL deals addressing social media use and post-deal obligations, DMCA takedown procedures for unauthorized use of copyrighted content, and active monitoring of their name and image across digital platforms.

Are High School Athletes Subject to NIL Laws?

In many states, yes. A growing number of states have extended NIL rights to high school athletes, allowing them to enter into endorsement deals and NIL contracts before reaching the collegiate level. The applicable legal framework differs from college athlete NIL in important respects, including the athlete's capacity to contract, parental involvement requirements, and the absence of NCAA jurisdiction. High school athletes and their families should consult a sports law attorney familiar with their state's specific NIL laws.

What Is the USPTO's Role in NIL Intellectual Property Protection?

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal agency responsible for registering trademarks. Student-athletes seeking to protect their personal brand (including their name, nickname, or logo) can apply for federal trademark registration through the USPTO. A registered trademark provides nationwide protection and creates a public record of ownership that can be essential in disputes involving unauthorized commercial use of an athlete's identity.

Advance Your NIL Practice With NBI

The intersection of NIL and intellectual property law is one of the fastest-moving areas in the legal profession, and attorneys who build expertise here now are positioning themselves at the leading edge of a practice area that is only going to grow. Join NBI at nbi-sems.com today to explore a full catalog of CLE courses designed to help legal professionals lead, adapt, and thrive in a rapidly changing legal landscape.