The Detroit Lions (also known as the “Lions”) is a professional American football team who have competed in the National Football League (NFL) since way back in 1930. The team was initially founded in Portsmouth, Ohio, and called the Portsmouth Spartans. They relocated to Detroit in 1934 and renamed themselves the Detroit Lions, to pair nicely with the city’s Major League Baseball (MLB) team, the Tigers. The team plays its home games at Ford Field.
The Lions compete in the NFL as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. Despite the team starting well and winning four NFL Championship games between 1935 and 1957, since then they have only won one playoff game (1991 season) and hold the league’s longest postseason win drought.
Though the Detroit Lions existed before the Super Bowl era, they are one of four teams to have never appeared in a Super Bowl and are the only franchise operational for the entirety of the Super Bowl to have never made it.
The Lions have a long-standing Thanksgiving Day tradition, started in 1934 by owner George A. Richards, who also owned a major radio affiliate of NBC Blue Network, WJR. He negotiated with NBC to have the Lion’s Thanksgiving games played live on all of the network’s stations. This tradition has continued uninterrupted ever since.
Famous Detroit Lions trademarks
The Detroit Lions have been a professional NFL American football team since 1930. However, despite their longstanding run, they only have eight trademarks to their name. Though the team hasn’t changed the name, logos, or uniforms much since their move to Detroit in 1934, it’s an interesting choice not to protect themselves against potential future disputes. Let’s look at the Lion’s most famous trademarks.
Detroit Lions
Despite being a franchise for so long, the Detroit Lions team name was only registered as a trademark in 2020 and is one of the Lion’s most recent trademarks. It applies to:
- Handbags, luggage, shoulder bags, beach bags, duffel bags, clutch bags, all-purpose sports bags, bags for sports, school bags, tote bags, knapsacks, wallets, travel bags, backpacks, umbrellas, and luggage tags
- Marketing services, namely, promoting the goods and services of others by arranging for sponsors to affiliate their goods and services with various football personalities and/or the sport of football; dissemination of advertising for others via an online electronic communications network
Defend the Den
The Detroit Lions filed for their first trademark on April Fool’s Day in 2015 for the slogan “Defend the Den”. This phrase had been popular with the Lions for the previous two seasons – referring to their need to constantly defend their home field. Though it’s quite a popular phrase used by other teams such as the AHL’s Hershey Bears and Montana State Football, they did well to recognize the importance of trademarking this slogan for their team. It applies to:
- Educational and entertainment services in the nature of professional American football games and exhibitions; providing sports and entertainment information about American football accessible by means of radio, television, cable, satellite, audio, video, web-based applications, mobile phone applications, and computer networks; entertainment services, namely, cheering, chanting, singing and other motivational activities for entertainment, amusement, and recreation at professional American football games and other special events rendered by a fan club/organization; American football fan club services
- Clothing, namely, T-shirts in connection with American football
Detroit Lions logo
The logo used by the Detroit Lions has been largely unchanged throughout its history. Their original logo featuring a football player in a red jersey riding a brown lion was used from 1952 to 1960 but was never trademarked. Since 1970, the Lions have used a simple image of a blue lion standing on its hind legs with its arms outstretched as if ready to fight. This logo was registered for a trademark in 2015 and applies to:
- Football helmets; downloadable software in the nature of mobile applications for displaying information relating to football exhibitions, football schedules, media guides, audio and visual recordings relating to football exhibitions, downloadable computer game, and video game software, downloadable multimedia files containing artwork, text, audio, video, games, and internet web links relating to football exhibitions; downloadable electronic publications, namely, magazines and newsletters, all in the field of football; cell phone covers; decorative magnets; magnetic coded charge cards; pre-recorded DVDs featuring the sport of football, light switch covers, computer game software, and disks, and mouse pads
- Jewelry, watches, clocks, ornamental pins, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, charms, rings, collectible coins, tie pins and clips, commemorative coins made of precious metal, pendants, and key chains made of precious metal
- Posters, calendars, trading cards, magazines relating to football, newsletters relating to football, notepads, stickers, bumper stickers, pens and pencils, paper flags and pennants, and greeting cards; tickets to sports games and events, pencil cases, rub-on decorative transfers, note paper, pictorial prints, art prints, tissue paper, wrapping paper, paper table cloths, paper napkins, paper party invitations, paper party decorations, paper gift bags, paper gift boxes, collectible cards; collectible card holders and memorabilia holders in the nature of ticket holders, trading card holders, photo stands, souvenir sports event programs holders; souvenir programs for sports events, and money clips of precious metals
- Toys and sporting goods, namely, plush toys, stuffed animal toys, play figures, golf balls, golf bags, golf club covers, footballs, toy banks, board games, Christmas tree ornaments, balloons, jigsaw puzzles, toy, and decorative windsocks, kites, pet toys, toy vehicles, billiard balls, dart boards, miniature toy helmets, cornhole board games, playing cards, and paper party hats
- Handbags, luggage, shoulder bags, duffel bags, clutch bags, all-purpose sports bags, bags for sports, school bags, tote bags, knapsacks, wallets, travel bags, backpacks, umbrellas, and luggage tags
- Marketing services, namely, promoting the goods and services of others by arranging for sponsors to affiliate their goods and services with various football personalities and/or the sport of football; dissemination of advertising for others via an online electronic communications network
Related: Trademark your logo, step by step
Detroit Lions Cheerleaders
It was announced in June 2016 that the Lions were introducing official cheerleaders to their organization. It’s the first time in over 40 years that they would have an official cheerleading squad as part of their team. The Detroit Lions Cheerleaders provide entertainment during football games and at community events. The trademark was registered in 2017 and applies to:
- Entertainment services in the nature of cheerleader performances at professional games and exhibitions and at other personal appearances; providing sports and entertainment information via a global computer network
- Printed products, namely, photographs
Lions Supply
The “Lions Supply” is the Detroit Lions’ all-new state-of-the-art retail store located at Ford Field. It is double the size of the previous stadium store and provides its fans with 6,000 square feet of NFL-licensed apparel, fan gear, and more. The store opened in September 2022. The trademark registration for the store name was applied for in June 2022 and is still pending, but if granted will apply to the:
- Retail store services featuring general consumer merchandise related to sports and sports teams
Wrapping up
Though the Detroit Lions haven’t done much in terms of updating their team name, brand, or logo since they originated way back in 1934, they have only trademarked eight of their assets. Trademarking their intellectual property is incredibly important to protecting their brand image. Trademarking more slogans and imagery could help with further marketing campaigns and will protect them from any future disputes, which could have happened when they registered the “Defend the Den” slogan which was being used by other teams. Though they haven’t had any major successes, the Detroit Lions franchise is still worth $3.05 billion and could really benefit from protecting more of their assets.
Find out more about other famous trademarks here.
