Article by Rumbidzayi Mlambo

Intellectual Property rights grant exclusive rights for a limited time to inventors for their creativity and innovation so that they can recoup their investments in coming with the innovations. This is an important aspect for any business and more so in the world of sports and recreation where discipline or event or programme sponsors and any other partners make huge amounts of investments in return for some benefits which is usually brand visibility and promotion. The sports personalities and other associated personalities such as DJs/ presenters etc. also gain popularity and followings, but is this the only way that sponsors, sports celebrities and other personalities can make money or mileage? The answer is NO! The intellectual property system can actually help in enhancing earnings from sports and recreation and also enhance the sponsorship in these sectors.

In this article I will focus on the application and benefit of IP in the sporting sector but it is key to note that it is also relevant to the recreation industry in terms of events, celebrities, DJs and other key personalities and partners involved

Intellectual property has been said to be the key underlying factor that governs the business relationships in international sport. The Director General of WIPO has said

“Intellectual property underpins the many commercial relationships that exist in the world of sport, and offers enormous potential as a driver of economic development.”

The rationale behind the use of IP in sport is that investors must be given reasonable chance of obtaining a favorable return before being copied by competitors. The different types of rights available for use in IP include trademarks, patents, industrial designs and copyrights. This article will focus on trademarks in sports and how they can be used to promote the sports industry and events.

Trademarks which protect the name of a business, product, service or individual have been applied to protect the name of a sporting event for example Real Madrid FC^TM and FIFA World Cup™ are protected names of a club and a sporting event. The advantage for a club or sporting event for having their name protected is that they build a brand in the market which identifies their products and services as different and advantageous over their competitors. The protection also prevents competitors and others who may want to free ride on the name of the club or the event cannot do so.

The trademarks once they gain popularity in the market can also be used for other value added benefits such as promoting tourism. An example is the real Madrid^TM which has been used to promote tourism in Spain. In 2011 the club signed a deal to promote tourism in Spain through the use of their trademark for the Visit Madrid or Visit Spain campaign and the sports personalities such as Cristiano Ronaldo acted as the brand ambassadors for the Spanish capital and the country. This was based on the nearly 300 million worldwide fan base of Real Madrid FC. An observation here is that as Zimbabwe or African Countries at large do we not have teams or personalities in for example swimming, soccer, cricket or rugby with regional and international audiences that can be used to promote business and tourism if they are registered as trademarks?

It has long been proven that an athlete is a powerful vehicle for an emotional connection to a sport. A proven winning strategy for brands/sponsors/partners is to associate their product with an athlete for example Tiger and Nike / David Beckham. The underlying factor for such success is associated with the IP of the personalities which is transferred or owned by the sponsor or club for a defined time period. These include not only their own name but also nicknames, poses, slogans, signatures, or other insignia for which they well known. An example is Usain bolt “Lightning Bolt” pose and his “to di world” slogan which, Michael Jordan’s “jump man” pose and his Air Jordan brand shoes and finally English Rugby star Johnny Wilkinson’s distinct kicking stance have all been registered as trademarks.

As much as these rights are an important, they key issue for clubs and sponsors to ensure that they own these rights for the duration in which the sports personality is with the club. This is the only way they can ensure that they reap the most benefit out of these trademarks.

A closely related aspect of sports celebrities and IP is the image rights as contained in the pictures taken of the celebrity falling under the domain of copyright protection, which the club and sponsors have to ensure that they own in order for them to exclusively release market and sell the images for a return on their investment on sponsorship of the personality.

Internationally this phenomenon has been taken very seriously with for example in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil a Bill was passed on these matters to ensure that the sponsors get a return on their investment. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued Rule 40 Guideline prohibiting athletes and any official participant in the Olympic Games to use their images or any related reference in individual advertising campaigns during this event (‘blackout period’), unless it involves an official sponsor. This rule intended to prevent ambush marketing by companies that may sponsor teams and/or individual players but are not an official sponsor, as occurred, for example, with Adidas, an official sponsor of the 2014 World Cup, when the Brazilian soccer player Neymar took his shirt off at the end of a match and, accidentally or not, revealed part of his underwear disclosing the trademark Blue Man, owned by a Brazilian swimwear and underwear company that unduly used this image to promote its products and trademarks on its Facebook page.

Once all the necessary image and trademarks are owned/assigned to the sponsors or club these can be used to license the names/images to companies that develop sports goods or merchandise (including sportswear) which have been proven to bring in more revenue that the ticket sales and advertising. This licensing and merchandising allows fans to engage in their passion for the sport or the personalities by allowing them access to authentic official licensed products offering unique marketing and earning potential.

The issue that needs to be resolved is how the Zimbabwean sports sector can benefit from these tools. The first issue would be that the sports industry needs to take seriously the issues related to IP protection and ensuring that contracts adequately cover these issues especially relating to ownership and use. Further the country has to take a tougher stance against counterfeits in sportswear which are being imported from china and flourishing in the streets this can lead to attracting investment from foreign sponsors will increasing local sponsorship.