Get Ready To Hear About The NBA’s Pat Riley If The NFL’s Chiefs Go To The Super Bowl

For those of you who are not football fans, we’re coming up on Super Bowl season. And, yes, that will surely mean that we will eventually do some posting on the ridiculous way in which the NFL enforces the trademark rights it has, and indeed some it does not have, for the Super Bowl. But this is actually about an entirely different trademark, one that will be widely discussed more and more depending on just how deep into the playoffs the Kansas City Chiefs get.

Apparel companies and the like in Kansas City are already starting to both talk and educate themselves about the term “three-peat”. If the Chiefs were able to win the Super Bowl this year, it would be for the third consecutive year in a row. That is commonly called a “three-peat” in sports parlance. Less common is the knowledge that the term is actually trademarked and has been for decades.

It’s no secret that Chiefs Kingdom is hoping and even preparing for the Chiefs to pull off a three-peat, but if you’re planning on getting gear with that phrase you may run into trouble. It may come as a surprise to some, but the phrase ‘three-peat’ and ‘3-peat’ is trademarked, meaning local businesses won’t be able to put it on their merchandise.

“I mean what else would you call it?” asked Greg Lewis, manager for merchandise company Raygun.

Shops like Raygun and Made Mobb, known for their out of the box and unique merch, will now have to get extra creative if the Chiefs score a third consecutive Super Bowl victory.

“We did not know that three-peat was trademarked so thank you for informing us,” said Jesse Phouangphet, the Marketing Director for Made Mobb.

So, who has a registered trademark for “three-peat” and several of its variations? Pat Riley, that’s who. For those of you who don’t follow the NBA, Riley is one of the most legendary coaches and front office executives in NBA history. While coaching the Lakers in the 80s, he trademarked the term, despite acknowledging it wasn’t coined by him, as he was attempting to take the Lakers to their third consecutive title. The Lakers would go on to lose that season, but Riley had his trademark any way. Over the years, his company, Riles & Co., would maintain those trademarks. And, to fulfill the requirement that the marks be used in commerce, the company would produce a handful of hilariously bad products using the phrase.

But the company’s real business is purely in licensing the term whenever some team out there wins 3 titles in a row and they, or third parties, develop merch around the term. When the Bulls three-peated twice in the 90s, ironically by beating Riley teams along the way, Riley cashed in. When the Yankees won the World Series in ’98, ’99, and ’00, Riley cashed in. And, presumably, if the Chiefs win a 3rd consecutive Super Bowl, Riley will attempt to cash in on that, too.

Notably, Riley’s trademark has been challenged several times over the years. And it’s not hard to understand why. In the sports world, outside of commerce, the term is fairly ubiquitous to the point of being generic. The fact that relatively few people associate the term at all with Riley or his business drives the point home that’s it does a trash job of being a source identifier. And it’s fanciful nature mostly amounts to it being a portmanteau, and not a particular creative one at that. To that extent, it’s also fairly descriptive in nature.

Sadly, none of the challenges to date have worked, and the term is still locked up under trademark by Riley. So prepare yourself to hear all about an old NBA executive if the Chiefs make a deep playoff run, as annoying as that will be.