Super Bowl Also a Big Game for Bootleggers

They’ve been hard at it for months now, setting up sting operations, scanning everything from shorts to helmets to jerseys to key rings and checking out every place that stands to make a buck on the nation’s most publicized sporting event. They’re Super Bowl cops, and this week is their moment in the sun.

From all over the country, bootleggers have descended on Orange and Los Angeles counties to sell “knock-offs”--unlicensed products bearing NFL trademark symbols. To combat the problem, the league has set up shop at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles and shipped in its 250-strong trademark protection squad, a group of attorneys and investigators whose sole task is to stop knock-offs.

Officials of National Football League Properties, the league’s retail marketing and publication arm, won’t say exactly how much they make off their products or how much they lose because of unlicensed sales. But John Flood, director of legal affairs for the NFL, did say the losses run “in the millions.”

Under federal trademark law, NFL team emblems and the Super Bowl logo are registered with the federal government and may not be reproduced without the permission of the league. The NFL charges royalties for that permission. Flood said those royalties average about 7 1/2% of the cost of the products.

“Obviously the Super Bowl is the high point of our season, and it’s the time when bootleg merchandise is most prevalent,” Flood said. “Professionals from all over the country come out of the woodwork to make a quick buck off the event. There are bootleg pirates who travel from major event to major event, and the Super Bowl is the granddaddy of them all.”

NFLP has become skilled at protecting its products, and unlicensed merchandise has fallen from about half of the market at Super Bowl XIII in 1979 to about 1% today. But, Flood said, the phenomenal growth in popularity of football means that 1% amounts to a big chunk of money.

“We stop most of it and we really do protect our market, but it’s so profitable that there’s still a windfall out there for bootleggers,” he said.

Super Bowl cops work all year in each of the league’s 28 cities, Flood said. Bootleggers who get by the investigators are often reported by team personnel and official manufacturers.

Once a potentially bogus item is spotted, an investigator will make a purchase and send it to Flood, who decides whether it’s illegal. If he thinks it is, the next step is a “cease and desist” letter warning the manufacturer or sales outlet to stop or face legal action. Nine times out of 10, the problem ends there, Flood said, but in the other 10% of the cases, NFLP goes to court.

There the league usually seeks a restraining order and, in rare cases, will confiscate products. Flood said no court actions have been filed in Southern California yet during this Super Bowl week but added that he’s “assessing the situation.”

Civil suits are the last step, but Flood stressed that the league is quite willing to take that final step if necessary. For example, in 1982, a judge ordered Wichita Falls Sportswear Inc. to stop manufacturing replica football jerseys, and last year another judge did the same to New Jersey Giants Inc., a firm that sold products bearing those words.

The usual cascade of phony stuff is well under way in Southern California as the New York Giants and Denver Broncos prepare to meet in Pasadena Sunday.

Nick Tabler, who runs All-Pro Championships Inc., a licensed NFL product manufacturer in Santa Ana, said he expects to see as many as 80 high-volume bootleggers working the market this week. While the big guys are his main concern, Tabler says he also loses money to “mom and pop” operations or firms such as restaurants that ask a printer to make up a few dozen T-shirts for a Super Bowl party.

“You get everything,” Tabler said. “We have some real blatant stuff, too. I sent one example out to the league. There’s a gentleman out here copying the Lombardi Trophy along with the two team logos on shirts and hats and banners.”

Tabler produced a flyer put out by a firm in Corona del Mar that advertised T-shirts at $5.95 each, caps at $3.95 and “giant fluorescent hanging banners” for $64.95. “INCREASE PROFITS AT YOUR SUPER BOWL EVENT,” the flyer stated. At the bottom of the sheet, in parentheses and small print, was a disclaimer: “These items are not official NFL products.”

Calls to the company were not returned.

Unlicensed products aren’t a good deal, Tabler argued, because they’re usually made of shoddy material and the graphics aren’t as good as the real thing. And they are often more expensive.

“We sell Super Bowl caps or Giants or Broncos caps priced from $7 to $13. It all depends on what the hat looks like,” he said. “I’ve seen some God-awful-looking caps selling on the street corners for $15. And we ended up confiscating them. But people were buying them up, and they weren’t even worth $5.”

Roger Atkin, director of licensing for NFLP, said fans can easily spot a bootleg product by the lack of the official NFL logo--a shield bearing the trademark emblazoned on all official products. Atkin said the vast quantities of official merchandise on the market, the watchfulness of licensed manufacturers and the sharp eyes of the 200 or so investigators effectively cuts down on bootleg profits.

“It’s something that we’ve become very well versed in,” he said, adding that much of the problem is easy to quash. “In some cases, it’s just ignorance, and the problem usually ends after we send out a letter.”