Sports and Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property (IP) rights (patents, industrial designs, trademarks, copyright, etc) are usually associated with industry, typically the manufacturing industry. IP rights give exclusivity to the IP owner for a limited period of time. But organizers of sports activities are utilizing IP laws to take advantage of the interest in particular sports.

Sports activities started as a hobby or a pastime event to enable participants to enjoy the sports or as a form of physical exercise. Now certain games have evolved into giant international events, or more appropriately international businesses with their own "tailor-made" law. Such international events even challenge sovereign laws of countries.

Popular games such as football, golf, tennis, basketball, cricket, yachting, car-racing, and so forth have evolved into international events with a huge following, creating gigantic marketing potential for the organizers. The organizers of popular games such as FIFA (football), PGA (golf), NBA (basketball), and so on organize and manage the events, typically international competitions in such a manner to extract maximum value from others who want to exploit the marketing potential the events offer.

The organizers initially create a distinctive logo, emblem or phrase(s) to identify the event. If the logos or emblems are original, they would also be protected as copyrighted works.

As an example, the emblem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is protected as a trademark and as an artistic work under copyright laws. Terms such as "2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa", "2010 FIFA World Cup", "2010 World Cup", "Football World Cup" and similar derivations thereof are also protected against unauthorized use and subject to applicable laws in the various jurisdictions.

As the logo/emblem/phrases ("event identifiers") are promoted heavily in the main media, they are easily and very quickly associated with the event by the public and thereby acquire a strong trademark value. Event organizers then proceed to exploit the trademark value to other businesses.

Let us look at various streams of revenue to the organizers. The first line of revenue is sponsorship fees. This includes the right to display the sponsor's trademark inside the games venue/stadium, the right to use the event identifiers on articles manufactured by the sponsors or the right to use the event identifier in association with a service (e.g. banking, credit card (VISA), business process outsourcing (Mahindra Satyam)), or placement rights (e.g., a certain luxury watch brand adjacent to tee boxes in golf courses).

The second line of revenue is gate collection. Even here the printing of tickets may be sponsored - the ticket bearing the trademark of the sponsoring party.

The third source of revenue is exclusive supply of products for the games, such as footballs, tennis balls, shuttlecocks (badminton), fuel and lubricants (car racing), etc. The supplier of the articles has the right to describe themselves as the "official supplier" to promote their articles and advertise themselves as the exclusive provider of such articles. Ironically, although Adidas was a top-tier sponsor/partner in the FIFA World Cup 2010, it was Nike that attracted more of the viewers' attention, whether through the players' football boots or clever advertising spots. Is this a case of poor sponsorship strategy by Adidas?

The fourth source of revenue, and increasingly the most lucrative source of revenue, is exclusive right of recording and broadcasting the event over television and radio, and possibly over the internet in the near future. The broadcasting rights are given to regional and national broadcasting networks. All copyright in respect of recording and broadcasting the games are retained by the organizers or licensed to specific entities.

Lastly, the organizers also grant exclusive rights to manufacturers to manufacture and sell merchandise of mascots or products bearing the event identifier in return for payment of a royalty fee.

The organizers have a broad stream of revenue, namely:

1. Sponsorship fees
2. Gate collection
3. Exclusive rights to product use in event
4. Broadcasting rights
5. Merchandising rights

Apart from the event organizers, other manufacturers and service providers take advantage by sponsoring the sports attire and games equipment of particular teams or players. Just consider the brand of the player's T-shirt, shorts, cap, gloves, shoes, socks, etc. In South Africa, shoes of a non-sponsor brand worn by the players stood out just as prominently (if not more so) than those of one of the official sponsors. In the case of race car drivers, have you ever seen plain drivers' overalls? On the contrary, the driver's overall, including the crash helmet is often plastered with an assortment of trademarks.

Even the refreshments/drinks consumed by the player during the game are sponsored, with full advertisement value taken advantage of. Here the advertisement of the trademark is not advertisement of the product, like what appears in a TV commercial, but the trademark or product is inherently associated with a successful player. What further convincing message can be produced, if not for a world-class player using the advertiser's product?

Apart from the organizers earning revenues as aforesaid, players, especially the top players in the games, often endorse sports-related and even non-sporting products or services or businesses. For example, Tiger Woods not only endorses golf clubs, balls, T-shirts, caps, etc but also endorses watches, consulting services, and personal hygiene products (Note: He was later suspended/dropped from the latter two following his transgressions); Maria Sharapova, one of the top women tennis players, endorses footwear and apparel, cameras, and watches, amongst others; and football player Ronaldinho has endorsement contracts with Pepsi, Nike and Sony.

In order to derive maximum profit from the revenue streams, organizers of big game events like FIFA have to strictly enforce their trademark rights and act against those who associate themselves with their trademark without the consent of the organizer. Unless the organizers take strict action against infringers, it is unlikely that they would command high sponsorship rates for future events, not to mention possible breach of sponsorship contract.

Unfortunately, IP laws were not designed for such periodic international events. Many manufacturers or service providers would like to be associated with such prominent international events that draw TV audiences in the billions, but either they do not have the opportunity or cannot afford the fees and costs. So they try to associate their product/service to the event without the consent of the event organizer. This is where "ambush marketing" comes into play. Event organizers have a field day taking action against such marketers. But whether a particular event or advertisement amounts to ambush marketing is not clear under conventional IP laws. To avoid this, countries, especially host countries, are often required to enact specific laws to deal with ambush marketing before they are given the opportunity to host the event. Britain had to enact the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 before the 2012 Olympics in London. The trademark "London 2012" is protected.

The next question arises as to how and what manner the revenue derived from the event, say the 2010 FIFA World Cup, is spent. Who benefits from the revenue? That, will be the subject of another article for another day.

Note: The trademarks and designs identified in the article belong to their respective owners. The author does not claim any proprietary right whatsoever; they are used merely for educational purposes.

Kandiah P is the Managing Director of KASS International, an established intellectual property firm with offices in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. He has been practicing in the area of Intellectual Property Law since 1987 and has vast experience in assisting local and international clients in obtaining patents, trademarks and industrial design rights on a global scale, and also specializes in identifying patentable inventions, designing around patented technology, creating new products together with clients, and advising on the commercialisation of IP Rights.

He has been identified as one of the most highly-acclaimed legal experts in the Intellectual Property field in the Asia-Pacific region by the Asialaw Leading Lawyers survey (2007-2009). If you have any queries or need more information, please visit http://www.kass.com.my or drop an e-mail to ipr@kass.com.my.

Decorating Your Bedroom and Showing Team Spirit

But before you get too caught up in your classes and demanding schedule, you need to take some time to unpack, set up your room, and decorate! Some students find the beginning of the school year a bit overwhelming and forget to take time to create that perfect "home away from home." Suddenly, it's the middle of the first semester, and your clothes and other items are still sitting in your bags and boxes!

So get those clothes into the drawers; your toiletries into the bathroom; and your books, pictures, knickknacks, and paraphernalia onto your nightstand and the shelves and walls! Once that's done, you can start thinking about how to decorate your dorm room and maybe display some college team spirit, too!

First, talk to your roommate(s), if applicable, to discuss your ideas. You might need to compromise or slightly alter or "tone down" your ideas to ensure your dorm room will be a stylish and comfortable haven for both/all of you.

Next, consider your budget. Extra furniture and décor can be quite expensive, so think about how much you have to spend all together before you make an impulse purchase on one particular item you think you simply "have" to have, which ends up being all you can afford.

Many students don't have oodles of disposable income available to them, so you might want to consider budget-friendly ways of decorating your dorm room. Look for sales and discounts, bring stylish pieces from home that you can use to accent your room, search online for secondhand items, scout out yard sales, and consider multi-use purchases (for example, a funky ottoman that can be used for storage, for sitting, for propping your feet, and for holding your jacket or bag). Also consider what might be available right at your college or in town for a reasonable price that you can use to show some team spirit.

Many students choose to display a little team spirit through the décor in their dorm rooms. This can be a great idea to help you feel a part of your college community, as well as to help make the college feel like home for a while. Some ideas for incorporating team spirit into your dorm room décor include putting up posters or banners, displaying a small plush-toy version of a college sports team mascot on a shelf, taking a good-quality outdoor photograph of the campus and framing it, framing your acceptance letter, displaying a blown-up version of the college logo on a bulletin board, or incorporating the colors of your college or college sports team into your décor (curtains, pillows, throw blanket, lamp, garbage can, bathroom accents, etc.).

You can also display team spirit in your dorm room using blinds or shades. One option is using college colors in the blinds/shades. Alternatively, you might consider PERSONA Custom Graphics' Collegiate Collection Roller Shades, featuring the official logos of leading colleges and universities in the U.S. These shades are available in a variety of quality fabrics and hardware options.

However, exercise caution when going the team spirit route-going overboard and doing too much with the space you have can make your room look tacky, like a walk-in advertisement for the college, and make you seem like you're trying too hard, without any taste or sense of style of your own. The overdone team spirit dorm room can be off-putting to your roommates and guests.

Instead, try to integrate the concept of "team spirit" into your overall décor and style, and choose a few items that particularly stand out and appeal to you, instead of going overboard with every kind of college paraphernalia that you can think of.

There are various ways to show your team spirit - from football team flags to MLB window shades; These are fun and exciting ways to keep your room decorated and full of spirit.

Sports Apparel - Pick Your Team and Show Your Colors!

What's your favorite sports apparel?

Oh, come on, you probably have a lucky Yankees hat or maybe an LA jersey that is your absolute favorite. Most people do. It's pretty interesting to see all of the different sports apparel that is available today. It's also interesting to see all of the different types of people wearing them. What used to be a "man thing" has grown into a universal thing that has men, women, young, old and even babies donning sports apparel of all kinds.

People from Carolina to Los Angeles and everywhere in between are buying hats, jerseys, tee shirts and even sports related accessories. It seems everyone has a favorite team that they want to support. It doesn't even necessarily have to be their local team! Take a look around some day while walking down the street or in a local shop. Notice how many people have on at least ONE item that is sports related.

It isn't just the big league teams getting the attention either. You can find NCAA apparel everywhere now days. That is especially true in places like Florida, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado and other places that have loyal fan bases.

The NFL has a huge following and believe me, there is sports apparel for their fans too! The most popular item for the NFL fanatics seems to be the jerseys. MLB; hats and jerseys are the most popular items. Oh, and of course there are the shoes. Reebok even has sports lines. Jackets are pretty popular too. There is no getting around it, sports apparel isn't going to fade as a fad anytime soon. In fact, by this time it's not a fad at all but more the norm. Sports apparel may well become the "What was worn" of the 1990's into the 2000's.

You know, kids could get a real geography lesson by just keeping up with the different states and names they see on the sports gear worn by those around them. Seattle, Minnesota, Carolina, Chicago, New York...and the list goes on. Who knows, sports apparel can be the next big teaching tool.

Prices vary on the different sports wear that is available but all in all, it is pretty reasonable. Depending on where you shop, of course! Stores try to keep their racks and shelves stacked with the most popular and you can usually find all of the teams at specialty sportswear shops.

Game days are interesting. Everyone dons their team apparel for game day regardless of whether they are going to the game or not. You can see babies with tiny team cheerleader outfits on or grand parents with their tee shirts or caps proudly displaying their team spirit. Of course, some areas have more than one team so the population is divided. Still, team spirit is team spirit! There doesn't seem to be much coNFLict though, as long as you are supporting one team or another. Of course that may not be the case when we are talking about, say, Boston and New York!

Sports Apparel [http://www.colorsandstripes.com/College-Apparel.html] is getting bigger and bigger. Pick your team in the MLB [http://www.colorsandstripes.com/MLB-Apparel.html] and show your true colors at Colors and Stripes!