Intellectual property and the business of sports management

Abstract

Sports which, for a very long time, was considered to be a recreational activity, has today become a thorough commercial activity generating elephantine profits. A major portion of this revenue flows from various activities such as branding, merchandising, licensing etc. which involve exploitation of the various intellectual property rights of sports clubs. In the process of forming a sports team or a sports club to organizing sports events, there is a huge amount of intellectual property created. Thus there arises an intersection between intellectual property rights and the business of sports. This article highlights various species of intellectual property associated with sports, their protection and various ways of their exploitation. The article also analyses various legal issues that arise often or are foreseen with respect to intellectual property and sports.