The Pac-12 Conference applied for marks this quarter that attempt to cover different circumstances if the league—which currently has two people, with pledges to add six more in 2026—ends up later fielding nine, 10, 11, 13 or 14 schools.
On Dec. 11, the group filed programs with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the word signifies for” Pac-9″,” Pac-10″,” Pac-11″,” Pac-13″,” Pac-14″, according to the USPTO’s website registration. That same day, the convention even publicly pursued the scars to the innumerable” Pacific Athletic Conference” and” The PAC Conference”.
The programs relate to publications, garments, organization services and spread or television programming. The group is utilizing Cooley, a law firm that has recently handled the Pac-12’s intellectual property matters. A powerful mark typically takes a little over a year to be registered, but mark protection is voluntary to the time its application was submitted.

A division spokesperson declined to comment.
Although obtaining trademarks is a comparatively trivial piece of legal housekeeping, it doesn’t necessarily mean that bigger plans are being worked out. In 1997, for example, the Big 12 Conference applied for the brand for” Great 14″, which it letting fall a few years later. If the Pac-12 were to change its name in the future, it had probably require the approval of the team’s existing account.
Following UCLA and USC’s notification to leave for the Big Ten in 2022, the Pac-12 had never recently applied for any new copyrights. Since August, the group has been a dyad between Washington State and Oregon State since 10 of its dozen members formally escaped to various conferences.
Operating as the Pac 10 Conference from 1978 to 2011, the Pac-12 abandoned an illustrated” Pac-10″ trademark in 2012–following the conference’s additions of Colorado and Utah–and its word marks for” Pac-10″ and” Pacific-10″ were canceled in 2016 for non-use. In June, the division renewed its” Pac-12″ level, which it initially applied for in 2010.
In September, the team’s board of directors voted unanimously to include five Mountain West Conference schools–Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Utah State–come July 1, 2026.
The following month, Gonzaga accepted an invitation to enter the Pac-12 at the same launch day, but as a non-football-playing part. Around that same time, the brand for the team’s one-time tagline,” Where Champions Play”, was canceled for non-use.

To meet the eight-program requirement, the Pac-12 would need to add a second football program to its FBS ( Fall Bowl Subdivision ) roster. The conference officially pursued Memphis, SMU, UTSA, Tulane, as well as the MWC’s UNLV and Air Force, but those institutions finally decided to stay put.
Next month, the Pac-12 announced that it had retained Octagon to function as its special press right mentor.