The LexisNexis publication MLex quoted McGuireWoods attorneys Janet Peyton and Christel Harlacher in an Aug. 20, 2026, article about aggressive trademark enforcement by colleges and universities.
The article quoted from a Jan. 27, 2026, legal alert in which Peyton and Harlacher outlined key trademark principles that apply to college athletics, which have become more commercially visible with the rise of name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities for scholastic athletes. As MLex reported, the McGuireWoods attorneys characterized athletic trademarks as “among a university’s most valuable assets” and warned that inconsistent enforcement “can erode trademark rights.”
In an interview with MLex, Harlacher said enforcement against trademark infringers and counterfeiters can help institutions “close the revenue gap caused by rising costs in the NIL era” because “customers will no longer be able to buy those unauthorized products and may choose to purchase officially licensed products instead.”
The proliferation of NIL deals gives institutions another incentive to closely control use of their trademarks, Harlacher added. Doing so, she said, helps “ensure the schools also benefit when third parties leverage and profit from the goodwill associated with them.”
The story also cited recent university-led trademark litigation disputes that “are helping to define where protection ends and broader control over institutional identity begins.” Those include a 2024 decision in which a federal jury found that an online retailer and manufacturer willfully infringed Penn State’s trademarks by selling unlicensed merchandise with names and vintage logos associated with the university. A McGuireWoods IP litigation team led by David Finkelson and Lucy Jewett Wheatley represents Penn State in the dispute, which is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.