# Sunday's Big Game will be SUPER, like a BOWL........................... of Dean's dip
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 21, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909 "2003-01-21T01:04:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/1 "2003-01-21T01:04:22Z")
I’ve been noticing the Superbowl is not being called the Superbowl - any legal reason for this.
Instead of the Superbowl, I’ve heard
The Big Game
The Big Game in San Diego
The upersa owlla
and such other references.
What’s going on?
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/2 "2003-01-21T01:11:39Z")
I don’t know. E! was advertising some SB party that they are televising and they, too, wouldn’t say Super Bowl.
Obvious conclusion: NFL lawyers get their training from Disney or the folks who make “Barney.” :shudder:
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### Author:  [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/3 "2003-01-21T01:38:29Z")
My SWAG is someone cannot use that term if they are selling anything or are making money on the ad. There is a radio station here that has a huge outdoor block party with dozens of couches in the street. Free admission. They are using the correct name.
[Here](http://www.949zeta.com/Nationalsuperbowl.html) they use the name, and the voice ads for [this party](http://www.949zeta.com/superblock.html) use it, too, although it is missing from the print.
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/4 "2003-01-21T02:29:30Z")
As I understand it, the words “Super Bowl” have now been copyrighted, and any use of the term in the media means you have to pay royalties to the NFL.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/5 "2003-01-21T03:21:15Z")
Super Bowl is a registered trademark of the National Football League, and has been such since 1969. Our friend the U.S. Code tells us it’s against the law to use a trademark without permission-I’m not exactly sure where, but it’s there.
This bowl is super! It can hold many things. It’s the thirty-seventh I’ve made. I call it…a really big bowl. (I’m just being silly here, as the OP was with the dip thing.)
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/6 "2003-01-21T03:34:17Z")
Actually he’s quoting a real commercial. I heard it the other day and got quite a giggle out of it. Dean’s bean dip seems to have decided to see how close to the edge of trademark infringement they can get away with.
I would love to see someone market “Super Bowl” toilet cleaner, and claim that it wasn’t a football reference, so they aren’t infringing the trademark.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/7 "2003-01-21T04:48:21Z")
Yeah, he’s quoting a real commercial.
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### Author:  [@Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linus_Van_Pelt)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sundays-big-game-will-be-super-like-a-bowl-of-deans-dip/149909/8 "2003-01-21T06:07:27Z")
I saw something very similar a few years back here in Phoenix. A local business used the words “Phoenix Suns” in one of their ads during the playoffs and got into big trouble because they were not official sponsors. After, the same business used an add talking about “our local professional basketball team.” I also saw grocery stores selling purple and orange colored chips for watching “the big game” or some other phrase like that.
Sports franchises and organizations are big business. They don’t give _anything_ away for free.