PHILADELPHIA — With all due respect to those with nothing on their minds at Wednesday night’s Philadelphia 76ers game against the Miami Heat at Wells Fargo Center other than Fly Eagles Fly, Heat president Pat Riley clearly is siding the other way in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
With a Kansas City Chiefs victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, Riley again will be able to cash in with his Three-Peat trademark from his championship coaching days with the Los Angeles Lakers.
While Riley never got to cash in on the phrase by his own doing, his six trademarks of the phrase could go to a good cause if the Chiefs become the first team to make it three consecutive Super Bowl titles.
Riley, in the midst of trade negotiations involving disgruntled forward Jimmy Butler, previously has said that proceeds of such royalties go to the Pat Riley Family Foundation.
It is the Chiefs, and not the NFL, who reached agreement for use of the phrase, according to multiple media reports, including a sports memorabilia site. According to a party familiar with the process, final paperwork still remains on the matter.
Although stories over the years contend it was members of Riley’s Lakers rosters who coined the phrase, with Byron Scott among those having utilized the phrase, Riley first filed for the trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office prior to the 1988-89 NBA season, after his Showtime Lakers had won consecutive championships. The Lakers then fell to the Detroit Pistons the following spring, to prevent Riley from immediately cashing in.
Several teams since have reached agreements for royalty rights, including the Michael Jordan championship Chicago Bulls, who twice won three consecutive NBA titles, defeating, among other teams on the way to those titles, teams coached by Riley in New York and Miami.
The New York Yankees also utilized Three-Peat for their such title run in 2000, as did the Lakers at the start of that decade.
According to the Sportico website, “Trademark registration carries a bevy of legal protections for Riley. Most notably, registration creates a presumption of ownership for Riley in the three-peat mark. It also provides the exclusive right to use the mark, which is instrumental in infringement cases. If another party wants to use three-peat for a purpose protected by Riley’s trademark registrations — such as for hats, jackets, shirts, sunglasses and energy drinks — it would need to negotiate permission from the 79-year-old. Permission is normally provided through a licensing agreement. Another benefit of registration for Riley is that he gains anti-counterfeit protections from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”
