With news breaking yesterday of Troy Polamalu’s retirement from the National Football League, I did what every normal person would do after hearing such news: I took a look at what trademarks he owns!
For those of you who are fans of the NFL, and even for some who are not, it was easy to identify that Troy Polamalu’s “trademark” was his long hair. Sure, there are a number of athletes with long hair and it’s common to see football players with hair sticking out of their helmets as you sit there wondering how much it would hurt if someone were to pull on their hair during a tackle. Yet Polamalu was different. He embraced his long hair and made it his brand. This led to a partnership with Procter & Gamble to promote the Head & Shoulders shampoo in a series of commercials like this one:
Oh, it also led to a $1 million insurance policy…on his hair.
When it comes to trademark applications, a search on the USPTO database shows that Polamalu has applied for 8 trademarks. The three that have issued and are currently registered are: TP, POLAMALU, and TROY POLAMALU. These registrations protect the use of those names on clothing. Another 3 applications have been abandoned.
The remaining two applications for the logos shown below embrace his “trademark” look and exemplify how trademarks are intended to work.
Trademarks are meant to identify a source of goods or services. Take the hair out of the images above, and we have no idea who the image would be referring to as it would just be a silhouette of someone catching a ball. Add the “trademark” hair and we immediately know the source: Troy Polamalu.
Troy Polamalu teaches us a valuable lesson: Identify your brand and make it yours.
