In 1983 UT began a licensing program through which institutional marks and indicia were protected by trademark, and fees were required to be paid before the marks could be used. In its first year of operation, the program took in $3,000.
In 1985 the licensing program was outsourced to Bill Battle, former UT football coach (1970–76), who had formed a company to serve as licensing agent for Bear Bryant at Alabama, whose name had become extremely marketable. Alabama, Ole Miss, and Clemson were the first schools to sign with Battle’s Collegiate Licensing Company. Within two years of his assumption of the UT program, complete with monitoring and enforcement of the restrictions on use of the protected marks, revenue increased to $130,000.