“The fact that the Coop chose Nike has little bearing on what anyone else decides to do,” Scalise said. “There’s been no phone calls to my office from Nike about this.”

While other colleges look at trademark licensing as a source of revenue, Scully said Harvard’s main priority is to protect the trademark. Other schools have been known to license anything from food products to caskets, Scully said, but Harvard limits trademark licensing to “traditional college products,” such as apparel and gift items.

“Harvard has the most conservative college trademark license in the country,” Scully said. “There is actually very little that we do license.”

As one of hundreds of companies to license the Harvard name and shield, Nike is bound to a standard trademark license agreement that requires the company to pay $125 in annual administrative fees, advance royalty ranging from $100 to $1,000, royalty rates of 7.5% wholesale and 3.75% retail, and to submit quarterly royalty reports. In addition, Nike submitted artwork designs as well as a list of products as part of its application process last summer, and the trademark office reserves the right to review and refuse designs they deem to be inappropriate for the trademark name. Nike will be selling its products directly to the Coop.

—Staff writer Eugenia V. Levenson can be reached at levenson@fas.harvard.edu.