Digitization and new transmission technologies are greatly impacting the intellectual property management of major sporting events, especially in image rights, in the use and protection of the brand and in product licensing, pointed out this Tuesday, 15, Carlos Castro, senior advisor from the International Olympic Committee, and Vicente Rosenfeld, FIFA in-house lawyer during the World Cup in Brazil. Both were speakers at the webinar “Intellectual property management at sporting events”, within the scope of IP Meetings, a series of virtual events promoted by ABPI and OMPI – World Intellectual Property Organization, at a table composed by the president of ABPI, Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta, who also served as a mediator, and the regional director of WIPO in Brazil, José Graça Aranha.
Castro highlighted the new trends brought on the trail of digital platforms in the field of broadcasting, the protection of brands and domain names on the internet. In the events’ transmissions, he noted, the impact of the entry of new actors in the system, such as Facebook and Amazon, is great, which bring in their wake a series of services and aggregated content, which traditional broadcasting companies will have to adapt to. “The traditional, unilateral transmission, in which there was no public response, gave way to platforms with an endless number of channels and frequencies available and, better, without content limitation”, he said.
In trademark protection, according to him, the changes are also significant. “Protection is no longer limited to the event itself, but a whole class of complementary services, which involve merchandising, product licensing, among others,” he said. In the case of domain names associated with the event and registered with the intention of future sale, Castro explained, the decisions of the WIPO Arbitration Center have been favorable to the organizers and the rights holders.
In his presentation, Rosenfeld highlighted the importance of intellectual property with the digitization of events. He cited the controversy involving the negotiation of image rights of players in video games, as is the case with clubs competing in the Libertadores and South American competitions. “This is a hot topic in Brazil and has generated hundreds of lawsuits,” he said. This is because, he explained, because many clubs have ceded the right to use the image, but have not obtained the authorizations of the players.
Full webinar at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB-IuYvVHTY