Sports and IP: Commentary on the Legal and Enforcement Framework Against Ambush Marketing for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games

Abstract

The Olympics is presently the largest and most popular sporting and cultural activity in the world and considered a model to many other championship activities based on its structured organisation, regulation and governance. It is evidently a tool for the development of sports laws at national and international levels.The modern Olympic Games presently involve a wide range of sporting activities and special sports suited for specially-abled athletes. The nature of the Olympics invariably demands enormous financial commitment vis- a- vis other obligations. The Olympic Games is privately funded by the designated host state which devises ingenious means to raise these funds with the assistance of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). To generate funds for the Games, support is sought from sponsors and partners of the Olympic movement, national and multinational corporations or enterprises and the success of a host city to reap enormous returns from hosting the Olympics largely depends on its ability to raise adequate funds and recover the monies expended in preparation for the grand event. A major incentive to sponsorship is a seeming assurance of profit to investment consequent upon the success of the Games. Ambush marketing is the act of riding on the goodwill of the Olympics for personal gain referred to as unauthorised marketing by way of suggesting association with the Games, usually with the use of Olympic properties. This practice robs the IOC and host cities or countries of funds and negatively impacts the integrity of the Olympics. It is for this reason that host cities such as Tokyo 2021 must strive to protect the Olympic properties. This paper is a commentary on the various strategies in protecting these Olympic intellectual properties, the effects of ambush marketing and the proposed legal and enforcement framework to be adopted in Tokyo 2021.