Football player holding a trophy and standing next to a chalkboard reading "Indiana University" - representing a blog post about the Hoosier’s trademark registrations.

Congratulations to Indiana for advancing through the College Football Playoffs to the 2026 College Football National Championship Game! This week we will be highlighting some college football championship related trademark registrations, including those owned by the University of Miami and Indiana University. Good luck Hoosiers!

Indiana University is one of the oldest public universities west of the Allegheny Mountains. IU was first founded as a state seminary in 1820 before becoming Indiana College in 1828 and getting renamed to Indiana University in 1838. While IU has a long and storied basketball history (INDIANA BASKETBALL® [4] is a trademark), its football team has not seen as much success. The 2025 season is undoubtedly the high mark in program history, and the team’s first Big Ten title since 1967. In fact, before this season IU was known more for its losing than any success. The program’s all-time football record is 534-715-44. Its 715 losses were the most in D1 college football history before the start of the 2025 season (Northwestern is now the record holder after finishing with 6 more losses this year).

INDIANA UNIVERSITY® [5], INDIANA® [6], and IU® [7] are registered trademarks for a variety of goods and services, including educational services and entertainment services, clothing, and everyday household items like drinking glasses, cups, plates, bowls, and wastebaskets.

The school owns several Hoosier-related word mark registrations, including INDIANA HOOSIERS® [8] (for clothing, HOOSIERS® [9] (for providing sports events and musical performances), and HOOSIER NATION® [10] (for organizing and conducting collegiate athletic competitions, athletic programs, and related undergraduate and alumni social events). Where did the Hoosier nickname come from? A Hoosier is someone from the state of Indiana. The word was in common use by the early 1800s, but the exact origin is famously murky. Popular theories range from frontier humor (“Who’s here?” shouted at cabin doors), to a dialect corruption of words like husher or hoozer, to even a contractor named Samuel Hoosier whose workers carried the nickname west. Whatever its true origin, by the mid-19th century Hoosier had become a proud identifier for Indiana residents.

Indiana is also the owner of several design mark registrations for its various IU logos, including the IU (Separated) Logo [11], IU (Merged) Logo [12], IU Oval Logo [13], and IU Filled Logo [14], all registered in connection with various types of clothing.

Want to see results from prior years? Check out our post on the 2025 College Football National Championship.

[1] Football, INDIANA UNIVERSITY HOOSIERS, https://iuhoosiers.com/feature/cfp-central-2025.

[2] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,699,530, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74188677&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[3] Our favorite story: the history of IU, INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON, available at https://bloomington.iu.edu/about/history.html; Indiana football record by year: How Hoosiers went from most losses in college football history to No. 1, THE SPORTING NEWS, posted January 1, 2026, and available at https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/indiana-football-record-hoosiers-went-083001663.html; Raised on basketball, now roaring for football: Breaking down Indiana's unlikely rise, NCAA, posted January 15, 2026, and available at https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2026-01-15/raised-basketball-now-roaring-football-breaking-down-indianas-unlikely-rise.

[4] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,705,521, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74188811&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[5] Id. at 2.

[6] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,691,609, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74188807&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[7] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 5,511,217, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87492231&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[8] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,713,815, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74188726&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[9] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 1,699,531, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74188792&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[10] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 4,728,152, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85881168&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[11] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,575,610, https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76160203&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[12] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,573,198, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76160204&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[13] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,603,963, available https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76182695&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[14] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,584,858, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76193895&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.