Why is the NFL so protective of the use of the term "Super Bowl"?

The Washington Post

To avoid shelling out money to the NFL, advertisers and other groups that could face legal consequences refer to the Super Bowl as "the Big Game" -- which the NFL tried and failed to trademark in 2007. It is, says Philip Bump, "a hackneyed aspect of the Super Bowl that I’ve always found interesting: the NFL’s hyperactive protection of the term 'Super Bowl' itself. This game makes everyone involved an outrageous amount of money, and so the league runs a Stasi-level policing effort to ensure that the people who are allowed to use 'Super Bowl' are the only people who use 'Super Bowl.'" Bump adds: "At its heart, the question is money. If the NFL thinks that your use of 'Super Bowl' infringes on the financial agreements it has in place or on its potential to affect future lucrative agreements, you will have a process server on your doorstep before you finish typing 'SUPER.' The word 'thinks' is the crux of that sentence; as noted, the league takes an expansive view of this. Churches charging a fundraising fee for a Super Bowl party, for example, is a slippery slope toward … uh … something that affects the bottom line, apparently. Someone filing for a trademark for a charity bowling event — 'Superbowling Spectacular' — faced opposition from the league because step one is you raise money for nonprofits with a bowl-a-thon, step two is [??], and step three is the NFL goes bankrupt. It’s almost too obvious." Still, the NFL is unlikely to sue. As trademark lawyer Mitchell Stabbe, who writes an annual explainer on Super Bowl trademark, notes, the NFL wants to create the perception that it will vigorously protect its trademark rights. “Does the NFL sue that often? No,” Stabbe says. “But who wants to run that risk?” 

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