Navigating Through the IP Landscape Within US Intercollegiate Athletics

March 2010

Abstract

This Article touches upon certain efforts to protect and utilize select intellectual property rights within US intercollegiate athletics, and specifically, by the main governing body thereof – the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA is a voluntary, unincorporated association through which mostly US colleges and universities oversee their athletics programs. While the NCAA is very much a “bottom up” organization, in which member colleges, universities and conferences rule the Association, the NCAA does have a national office located in Indianapolis, Indiana, with approximately 500 employees charged with implementing the programs and regulations adopted by the membership. The NCAA seeks to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable, and sportsmanlike manner, to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education, and to promote the well-being of the student-athlete.

Author

Jay Rossello

Director of Legal Affairs, National Collegiate Athletic Association One Ncaa Plaza, USA

Jay Rossello currently serves as Director of Legal Affairs for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In that capacity, Mr. Rossello works on a number of business, contractual and operational affairs, handles trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property matters, and provides general legal advice to NCAA officers and employees, its governing committees and other related entities. Mr. Rossello has also worked at a state institution of higher education, a publicly held company, a major law firm, and the United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Rossello has a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center, and a Master in Business Administration from Suffolk University’s Sawyer School of Management.

Company

National Collegiate Athletic Association One Ncaa Plaza

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a membership-led nonprofit, unincorporated association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletics opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA Championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit ncaa.org and ncaa.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes.

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