Final Four 2025
Trademark: Final Four
First Used: 1977
Current Owner: THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION [1]
Trademark Type: traditional trademark; word mark
Primarily Associated With: association services, namely, conducting annual basketball tournaments at the college level [2]
Brief (and likely incomplete) History [3]:
March Madness® [4] is winding down and the Final Four® is set. Congrats to the Florida Gators, Duke Blue Devils, Houston Cougars, and Auburn Tigers! The games don’t start until next weekend, but we are getting a jump start at looking at the trademark registrations for the Final Four and each team.
The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament began in 1939, organized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) under the leadership of Kansas coach Phog Allen. The first tournament featured only eight teams, with Oregon winning the inaugural championship. The tournament gradually expanded, growing to 16 teams in 1951, 32 teams in 1975, 64 teams in 1985, and eventually 68 teams in 2011. The term "Final Four" originated in a 1975 article by sportswriter Ed Chay of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He used the phrase to describe the last four teams left in the tournament. The NCAA adopted the phrase a few years later and the rest is history.
FINAL FOUR® is now a registered trademark used in connection with a variety of goods and services, including conducting annual basketball tournaments [2], casual shirts and jackets [5], jewelry, writing instruments, and tableware [6], sponsor affiliated goods [7], and entertainment services, luggage and athletic bags, and guides in the field of sports [8]. Of course, the final weekend of college basketball also goes by a variety of other names, including THE FINAL FOUR® (registered in connection with sporting goods, namely, basketballs [9]) and FINAL 4® (registered in connection with clothing [10]).
The NCAA also promotes the final weekend with a variety of taglines including And Then There Were Four® (entertainment services [11]), The Road Ends Here® (entertainment services [12]), The Road To The Final Four (clothing [13] and production distribution of multimedia projects and entertainment services [14]), and Four It All (entertainment in the nature of basketball tournaments between college teams [15] and bags, cups, towels, clothing, and novelty buttons, among many others [16]).
Interested in learning more about trademarks from other 2025 sporting events? Check out our 2025 posts on College Football National Championship, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, WNBA Finals, World Series, and MLS Cup.
Copyright © 2025 by Illustrated IP, LLC. All rights reserved.
[1] NCAA, https://www.ncaa.org/.
[2] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,488,836, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73663738&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[3] NCAA Tournament Final Four History, VEGAS INSIDER, posted March 30, 2025, and available at https://www.vegasinsider.com/college-basketball/history/finalfour/; The NCAA Final Four | The ultimate guide, NCAA, posted April 5, 2019, and available at https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2019-04-05/ncaa-final-four-ultimate-guide; NCAA'S FAMOUS PHRASE LINKED TO GREENSBORO GIG\ THIS YEAR'S FINAL FOUR IS IN INDIANAPOLIS, BUT THE TERM WAS FIRST PENNED ABOUT AN NCAA TOURNAMENT HERE, GREENSBORO, last updated January 25, 2015, and available at https://greensboro.com/ncaas-famous-phrase-linked-to-greensboro-gig-this-years-final-four-is-in-indianapolis-but/article_7692d807-60dc-5702-9b51-58db901302e7.html.
[4] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,485,443, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74360563&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[5] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,164,713, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73209397&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[6] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,731,961, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74124982&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[7] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,377,720, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75826675&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[8] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,964,266, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78424909&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[9] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,367,874, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73538986&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[10] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,954,402, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76569078&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[11] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,372,706, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77211021&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[12] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,465,872, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77211093&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[13] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,100,081, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78480242&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[14] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 5,059,869, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86143747&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[15] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 7,152,045, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=97160284&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.
[16] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 7,559,685, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=97217851&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.