Intellectual Property and Sports
On April 26, 2019, World Intellectual Property Day is celebrated through sports. Therefore, below we provide a brief summary of how Intellectual Property can be useful for athletes and why it is intrinsically connected to all kinds of sports.
Intellectual Property fosters innovations, inventions, and creations of the human intellect, as well as protects them through its various modalities, granting exclusive rights to their creators for a limited time for their exploitation and use, in exchange for reasonable economic compensation that rewards their effort and creativity.
There are several modalities of Intellectual Property through which different creations and inventions can be protected, and among them, we find the following:
Trademarks
They are signs used to distinguish specific products or services from different individuals or companies in the market. Once trademark registration is obtained, the holder acquires an exclusive right to use it for a renewable period of 10 years.
To classify and distinguish products and services, several countries use the International Classification of Goods and Services (the "NICE Classification"), which divides products from international class 1 to 34, and services from international class 35 to 45.
Some examples of registered trademarks are as follows:
Trademarks come in different types of nature, which can consist of: a word or phrase (denominative); an image or logo (figurative); a combination of words, symbols, or images (mixed); three-dimensional; and, signs that are not visible such as sounds (sound marks), smells (olfactory marks), and textures (tactile marks). Below, you can see an example of some of these trademarks:
Top Ecuadorian elite athletes, recognized worldwide for their outstanding performance and incredible achievements within the sports they have pursued; as well as professional football teams, have registered their names and their various variations as trademarks. Thus, we have the following cases:
Patents
This modality of Intellectual Property serves to protect any invention, whether it be a product or a process, in any field of technology. In order to obtain a patent registration, the invention must meet three requirements: novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability. Once the registration has been obtained, the patent holder obtains exclusive rights for its exploitation for a period of 20 years from the filing date of the application.
There is a system and method for evaluating sports activities, such as garments equipped with a sensor that can detect the impact of the garment, for example, footwear, on a specific surface.
Industrial designs
They consist of the particular appearance of a product resulting from any combination of lines or combination of colors. In other words, they constitute the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article.
The industrial design or model can also consist of any two-dimensional or three-dimensional external shape, line, contour, configuration, texture, or material, as long as these do not change the purpose or destination of the product.
Several students at the University of Oregon in the United States designed a handbike called "AD16" that served for an athlete who became disabled after a traffic accident to compete in a championship.
Copyright
This type of right is related to the protection of works of human intellect, whether they are artistic, literary, or scientific. Such works include: books, novels, films, paintings, sculptures, musical compositions, photographs, software, etc.
It's important to mention that the acquisition and exercise of these rights are not subject to registration with the competent authority, as the works are duly protected from the moment of their creation.
Copyrights are classified into two types of rights: moral rights and economic rights. Moral rights refer to the authorship of the work, i.e., the right to claim the status of creator of a work; and economic rights, which are linked to the economic rights received by the author or owner of the work for its exploitation. The duration of the protection of economic rights is the author's lifetime plus 70 years after their death, in Ecuador.
For example, several athletes from different disciplines write memoirs of experiences and lessons learned throughout their careers; these memoirs are eventually published through books (for example) and protected as literary works under the copyright regime.
They are those that provide protection to individuals who, without being authors of a work, contribute with their skills or organization in the process of exploiting and publicly communicating the work.
The holders of the aforementioned rights are: artists, performers, or performers; producers of phonograms of a musical work; and broadcasting organizations.
For example, broadcasting organizations enjoy exclusive rights to authorize the retransmission, fixation, and reproduction of their broadcasts, as well as the public communication of the same. As can be seen in the broadcast of sporting events such as: the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, the US Open, the X Games, among others.
Image rights
These are the rights that individuals have over their image, which may include: photographic images, graphic representations, and other elements that constitute it, such as their name, voice, etc.
For this reason, for any use of a person's image, it is completely necessary for them to give their consent and express authorization for the specific exploitation of it.
For example, players from various sports disciplines authorize the specific use of their image to promote video games; they also authorize the use of their image so that the developers of such games can create avatars based on their likeness, which will be used by users who purchase the video games.
Plant Breeders' Rights
This intellectual property right is granted to breeders who have created a new, distinct, homogeneous, and stable plant variety.
Such rights could be granted to a breeder who develops a new type of grass variety, which could be incorporated into football or golf fields.
Therefore, the leading role played by Intellectual Property in the world of sports is evident, as this branch of law has incentivized athletes, sports clubs, sports associations, public and private enterprises, and all individuals related to sports to protect their intangible assets. This encourages them to drive and stimulate the global economy through the commercialization of their inventions, works, products, and services.
For these and many more reasons, we celebrate the
World Intellectual Property Day!
Sources:
El deporte y la tecnología, OMPI Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual, https://www.wipo.int/ip-sport/es/technology.html
https://www.designboom.com/design/university-of-oregon-sports-product-design-10-24-2016/