Abstract

Sports is big business and mega bucks are spent on organizing and commercializing major sporting events, such as the FIFA, Cricket World Cup and the Summer and Winter Olympics. In this article, we will consider in what ways the law is able to protect the substantial investments made in these sporting events by organizers and sports sponsors and merchandisers alike, particularly in relation to the 2012 London Olympic Games and the rise of the phenomenon of so-called ‘Ambush Marketing’. Finally, some general conclusions will be drawn. This paper explores how property rights in sporting spectacles - both real and intellectual - could give rise to information monopolies. As event organizers and promoters see the commercial advantage of the Internet, they are producing their own news sites and competing for readership of the traditional news sources such as newspapers, television and radio. While the Internet is being heralded as the vehicle of greater information diversity, the co modification of sporting spectacles means that event organizers can derive an information monopoly in relation to their events. Intellectual property rights are seen by industry as a major pillar in sports entertainment as they protect the exclusivity of sponsors and the financial capacity of organizers. Trademarks are used to protect those IP rights but strategies like “ambush marketing”, in which non-sponsor competitors take advantage of a sports event sponsored by others, challenges those rights and thus it is required to control it in any possible ways.

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