Trademarks and licensing
UNC—Chapel Hill signed its first trademark licensing agreement in 1982, not long after the men's basketball team won the NCAA championship. The licensing agreement enables the university to control the use of the school name, logos, and symbols in merchandise and to collect royalties from authorized uses. The original trademarks included the university seal, the Old Well, the tar heel foot, Rameses, and the interlocking NC design. Licensing has become a lucrative operation for the university: in the 2012—13 academic year the school earned close to $4 million from licensing, money that would be used for student aid and scholarships.