9. The NFL trademarked a descriptive term for the day of the game
The Super Bowl has always been played on a Sunday. The NFL, always jealous of its intellectual property, trademarked the terms Super Bowl Sunday and the diminutive Super Sunday, neither of which can be used by other entities without “the expressed written consent” of the league. Interestingly, in the American Pacific territory of Guam, on the other side of the International Dateline, the game is played on a Monday, though no reference to Super Monday appears in NFL advertising. Several advertisers have attempted to circumvent the NFL’s trademark, notably Planter’s. The peanut company once ran an ad claiming it would be super to have a bowl of nuts during the game.
The NFL has in the past taken legal action against entities which hosted events described as Super Bowl Parties, including casinos and restaurants. Several changed the identity of their events to Big Game Parties, which led the NFL to attempt to trademark that descriptive in 2006. A critical public response led to withdrawing the application the following year. Several college rivalries compete in what is called the Big Game, including Stanford-California and Harvard-Yale. Holding a public event described as being a Super Bowl Party on Super Sunday (or Super Bowl Sunday) is technically a trademark violation, one which the NFL has attempted to enforce on more than one occasion.