Zimpapers Logo

Aleck Ncube, Intellectual property
SPORT has for a very long time been considered a recreational activity but today it is a thorough commercial activity generating massive profits. A major portion of this revenue flows from the various activities such as branding, merchandising and licensing etc, which involve exploitation of the various intellectual property rights of the sports clubs, sports persons, sports sponsors and organisers involved. There is a big intercession between intellectual property rights and the sports business.

With the emergence of sports as a veritable economic sector and its commercial importance increasing rapidly both in terms of events on the field and of the field in terms of the business of the exploitation of various intellectual property rights that are associated with sports events organisers and professional sports clubs.

It becomes imperative that professional sports clubs and sports events organisers within Zimbabwe not only join this highly profitable global bandwagon but also take into consideration the various forms of intellectual property rights within the context of sports like; trademark registration, copyright, patents, broadcast rights and so on. Commercial exploitation of these diverse forms of intellectual property rights within the context of Zimbabwe would not only result in an upward drive of the economic progression of the various domestic sports associations/sports events organisers within Zimbabwe, but would also increase the individual profit margins of individual sportsmen in the country while attracting international interest and foreign investment.

Furthermore, the growth of traditional sports in the virtual and digital sectors has opened up new avenues for IP in sports.

Confluence of sports and Intellectual Property rights

The primary objective of IP is to empower an individual or an entity to protect their intellect for a limited duration. In sports, a lot of hard work and efforts are put in by the sportsmen, the team, the organisation/club associated with the sports activity, or the organisers of the sports events. Each one of these entities may use the IP rights for commercial benefits.

Trademark
Trademarks are recognisable signs, expression of design indicator for distinguishing services or products of a particular source from that of the others.

Trademarks play a vital role in brand recognition throughout the globe. Nowadays sports events like football and cricket are branded using taglines, slogans and logos. The brand value generated from these sports events may be associated with a sports team, sportsmen, or even the merchandises. Once a brand is established, financial profits may be encored through live broadcasting and advertising. In some cases, trademarks have been filed on the name of the players considering their popularity and brand image. One such example is the name of the famous football player “David Beckham,” who has filed for trademark of his own name and earned millions of dollars through sponsorship deals and endorsements. Trademark is one of the most commonly created intellectual property rights associated with sports. The ability to protect and distinguish one sport team/club from another is crucial with respect to brand building and development.

The names, titles, tagline, slogans and logos of professional sports teams can be registered as trademarks. With the development of online gaming, it has become vitally important to protect the brand name considering the trends of upcoming online games. Online gaming is considered as one of the best platform for generating revenue. A large amount of these games are evolved from the sports leagues played at a global level. Hence, it becomes vitally important to file trademark protection for the teams participating in these sports leagues to avoid IP rights conflicts at a later stage. The current revenue model of the football clubs is through advertising and online broadcasting rights. However, it would not be surprising to see huge amount of revenue generated through online games derived from different sports leagues throughout the world.

Copyright
Copyright is a type of intellectual property owned by a creator of literary and artistic works. Copyright protection covers literary and artistic works such as books, paintings, music, films, and sculpture. Apart from this, copyrights also cover computer programmes, advertisements, maps, databases, and technical drawings. In the world of sports, copyrights play a very important role in protecting the artistic work, which is a part of these sports events.

Nowadays, with the increasing popularity of the sportsmen and the different leagues played throughout the world, a lot of video games and online games are immerging based on these sports events. Some of these video games include F1 (Formula 1) racing games and Fifa World Cup games, which have emerged as a result of increasing popularity of the world class racing and football events. The look and feel of these games is as good as participating in the event itself. This is mainly because of advanced graphics and the technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality, which are used in these games.

Another key aspect of these games is the use of avatars of icon players in the video games.

The experience of playing a game with the star players is in itself a delighting experience. However, in order to avoid misuse of these avatars (virtual players) care has to be taken in order to protect these star player avatars through copyright protection.

Trade secret
In sports, information, such as game plays, statistics, and analysis of the competitors, method of coaching etc, provide a competitive edge. Further, in respect of information the confidentiality has to be maintained. There have been numerous instances, where there has been a leakage of confidential information by the team members leading to losses to the team. Typically, a trade secret may be understood as any information, which is not generally known or available to public, and by which a person/company/organisation obtains an advantage over its competitors. Thus, having proper agreements and using confidentiality clauses is beneficial in order to avoid trade secret leakage.

Image rights
In the current environment, sports celebrities are created overnight and celebrity status leads to various forms of image creation, brand endorsement, revenue generation and capitalising on fame. They relate to the right to one’s own image and give the ability to decide when, how and by whom our physically recognisable features (image, voice and name) can be captured, reproduced or published.

Thus, endorsements, utilising personality, image and celebrity status is a major source of revenue for sports celebrities. Personality/publicity right, a related right, may be understood as the right to control any commercial exploitation of one’s name, image, likeness, or any other aspect of personal identity. Another related right close to sports, is character merchandising. Generally, character merchandising may be understood as monetising ones character, name or image, which has become a huge revenue earning business. Furthermore, even sports clubs come up with merchandising with the players of their teams.

Broadcasting Rights
Broadcasting rights may be understood as an IP that is created during screening of a sporting event and are recognized under Copyright. The term of broadcasting rights is twenty five years. Broadcasting companies own the broadcasting rights, which allow the owner to rebroadcast sporting events.

Under the Copyright Act, any person who re-broadcasts the broadcast or makes any reproduction of such sound recording or visual recording or sells or hires to the public or offers for sale or hire, any such sound recording or visual recording, without the license from the owner, is said to have infringed the broadcasting right. In the next write-up, I will continue to look at the immense benefits of the use of IP in sports.