North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick and his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, made a major move in the interest of their company, TCE Rights Management LLC. According to insider Darren Rovell, their company has filed a trademark for the term “Gold Digger” in line to create jewelry and keychains under this banner in the future.
This is in line with their past filings for terms like “Chapel Bill,” “Belestrator,” “Trail of Salty Tears,” “No Days Off,” and “The Belichick Way.” The “Gold Digger” trademark filing is currently under the examination of an attorney.
Trademark expert Josh Gerben first flagged the filings. He spotted 17 applications earlier in 2025 tied to Bill Belichick’s iconic sayings, many prefixed with the “(Bill’s Version)” suffix in an attempt to sidestep overlapping trademarks owned by the New England Patriots.
Below is the list of trademark filings with Serial No. via Gerben IP:
- CHAPEL BILL (BILL’S VERSION): 99120048
- BELESTRATOR (BILL’S VERSION): 99120086
- THE DYNASTY (BILL’S VERSION): 99120260
- THE BELESTRATOR (BILL’S VERSION): 99120078
- SAVING MISS DAISY: 99110890
- TRAIL OF SALTY TEARS: 99110894
- DO YOUR JOB (BILL’S VERSION): 99120061
- ALL-BELICHICK TEAM: 99120097
- THE ALL-TIME ALL-BELICHICK TEAM: 99120167
- PEACHY KEEN AND WONDERFUL: 99110885
- NO DAYS OFF (BILL’S VERSION): 99120069
- THE ALL-BELICHICK TEAM: 99120176
- CHAPEL BILL: 99120036
- THE BELICHICK WAY: 99120227
- IGNORE THE NOISE (BILL’S VERSION): 99120232
- DYNASTY (BILL’S VERSION): 99120252
Legal concerns arising from trademarks filed by Bill Belichick’s company following Taylor Swift’s strategy
Many of the above-mentioned slogans have already been trademarked by the Patriots. Adding the “Bill’s version” suffix is similar to the strategy global pop star Taylor Swift adopted. The singer re-recorded her songs and labeled them as “Taylor’s Version” to reclaim copyright control.
However, despite their filings with the “Bill’s version” suffix, trademark laws don’t allow simple rebranding to circumvent similarity with existing marks. Thus, there’s a good chance that these filings will face USPTO refusals unless the Patriots give up their rights on the trademarks.
Bill Belichick’s company might have paid a significant amount to apply for these filings, probably in the range of $40,000, with more or almost the same in legal fees. Even if, say, Belichick manages to get past USPTO’s review process, he’ll still need to explain regarding the use case.
The USPTO will grant them these trademarks if they make use of them for the things they mentioned in their filing for a wide range of categories, including keychains, apparel, television shows, biographies, and documentaries.
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