Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) for 20 seasons, retiring in 1989. Seven years later, former players, coaches, and others voted him one of the competition’s 50 greatest-ever players. As a registered trademark owner, bestselling author, and businessman with a high profile in a basketball-hungry nation, he seems like a good pick for extolling the virtues of intellectual property (IP) to the public.