Its impact, however, goes far beyond the playing field. The iconic sports drink, which celebrated its 60-year anniversary this year, has also fueled groundbreaking research at the University of Florida

Dr. Borna Mehrad, chief of the division of pulmonary, critical care & sleep medicine in the UF College of Medicine, said on Oct. 9 that the legacy of Dr. Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, still endures.

Read more about UF Scientists Using Gatorade Royalties To Support Groundbreaking Research.

Per one of the most enduring traditions in college football, Oklahoma’s 55-20 victory was official.  

But despite the loss, Florida still had a reason to celebrate: Every bottle of Gatorade sold in the world — and every drop poured on unsuspecting coaches during football season — signals a win.

An undisclosed share of Gatorade’s profits flows to a Gatorade Trust. The trust then sends 20% to the university, which employed the professor who invented the drink nearly 60 years ago.

In 2015, Florida announced it had accumulated ~$250M from the royalties. Its annual take over the last few years has been ~$20M, according to the university.

The importance of trademarking 

Patents expire after 20 years, but trademarks are forever, as long as you renew them.

Cade knew this, and the registered trademark of Gatorade — originally filed by Stokely-Van Camp after making the deal with the Gatorade Trust — is the only reason PepsiCo owes royalties. 

The company has not been able to get out of the arrangement, even as it has transitioned away from a Gatorade logo to ‘G’ for the last several years.  

“There was some wrangling over that: ‘Hey, you know, we may not have to pay you guys because it doesn’t say Gatorade,’” Jim O’Connell, Florida’s assistant vice president for technology transfer, told The Hustle. “But I’ll say it this way: They are paying us royalties on those products.”

Florida has used its royalties to bolster its research and entice new researchers looking to make lucrative discoveries.

The university patents around 140 inventions each year and made ~$500M off licenses between 2008 to 2018, placing it near the top of the market. In 2018, the total licensing revenue from university-affiliated patents was ~$2.9B.

In related news

Listen as Jim shares his background and journey to tech transfer at UF Innovate. He also talks about the true story of the invention of Gatorade, what happens to the money that the recognizable brand generates, and how he and his team manage the expectations that every UF invention will achieve the same blockbuster status.

In his role, Jim also leads two business incubators, Sid Martin Biotech and The Hub, Ventures, and Tech Licensing, which he also directs. Jim works with internal and external constituents to provide strategic leadership and direction in building and capitalizing on facilities, expertise, and technology at the University of Florida.

In related news

Over the years, Gatorade has evolved its products and services while staying true to its mission of helping athletes achieve their goals. Sports drinks are analog experiences, so when Gatorade wanted to bring their core product into the future, Smart Design helped them jump from sports fuel to sports monitoring with the creation of the Gx Platform, a system that uses biometric data to help athletes monitor and personalize their hydration, and its newest offering, the Gx Sweat Patch.