C H A P T E R
14
Legal Aspects
of Sport Marketing
Chapter 14 Legal Aspects of Sport Marketing
Importance of Sport Law Relative
to Sport Marketing
• Without working knowledge of how the law
affects sport marketing, professionals in the
field could risk considerable legal
consequences.
• The law is complex, and sport marketers
often require assistance from trained
lawyers to navigate issues. But having a
basic understanding of key issues is
helpful.
What Is Intellectual Property?
• Primary goal of intellectual property law is
to reward invention, ingenuity, and
creativity in an effort to maintain an open
and competitive marketplace.
• It is made up of three areas:
1. Trademarks
2. Copyrights
3. Patents
Licensing
• A trademark, copyright, or patent owner
may grant permission for its use to others
for a fee.
• When another does not have permission or
licensed rights to use the copyright,
trademark, or patent, that person is said to
be infringing on the rights of the intellectual
property owner.
Trademark Law
• A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or
device used by a person, generally a
manufacturer or merchant, to identify and
distinguish its goods from those
manufactured and sold by others, and to
indicate the source of the goods.
Trademark Registration
• To gain national trademark protection under
the Lanham Act, a trademark must be
registered with the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO).
• Registered marks gain the following:
– The ability of the trademark owner to sue in federal
court
– The ability to obtain trademark registration in foreign
countries
(continued)
Determining Trademark Infringement
• The strength of the trademark
• The degree of similarity
• The similarity of the products involved
• The market channels involved
• The distribution channels involved
(continued)
Determining Trademark Infringement
(continued)
• The intent of the defendant in adopting the
trademark
• The sophistication of potential consumers
• The evidence of actual confusion
Additional Trademark
Protection Issues
• Cybersquatting
• International trademark registration
Copyright Law and Sport Marketing
• Copyrights can protect written works,
music, pictures or graphic designs, and
audiovisual works (including broadcasts of
sporting events).
– Copyright Act of 1976 protects original works of
authorship appearing in any tangible medium of
expression.
– Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides copyright
laws regarding digital creations and the Internet.
(continued)
Copyright Law and Sport Marketing
(continued)
• A copyright can be for something to be
developed later, but the work must be
something that can be perceived,
reproduced, or otherwise communicated.
Works of Authorship
That Are Protected
• Literary works, such as books and stories
• Musical works, including any accompanying
words
• Dramatic works, including any
accompanying music
• Pantomimes and choreographic works
(continued)
Works of Authorship
That Are Protected (continued)
• Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
• Motion pictures and other audiovisual
works
• Sound recordings
• Architectural works
Copyright Infringement
• Copyright infringement occurs when
someone makes unauthorized use of a
copyrighted work.
• Courts consider four factors when
determining whether copyright infringement
has occurred:
(continued)
Defenses to Copyright Infringement
The fair use doctrine:
• Criticism
• Comment
• News reporting
• Teaching (including multiple copies for
classroom use)
• Scholarship
• Research
Copyrights and Sporting Events
• Broadcast and cable television
transmissions of sporting events are fully
protected by copyright law, but the events,
games, and statistics themselves are not
necessarily covered.
Patents
• Patents may be granted to anyone who invents
or discovers any new and useful process,
machine, manufacture, or composition of
matter, or any new and useful improvement.
• A patent cannot be granted for a mere idea,
only for the actual invention or a complete
description of it.
• A patent lasts 20 years. After the patent runs
out, anyone can use the technology or make
the product.
Ambush Marketing
• Occurs when a company capitalizes on the
goodwill of an event by using tactics to
imply an official association with that sport
event.
• The larger and more popular the event is,
the more often ambush marketing arises.
(continued)
Ambush Marketing (continued)
• Sport marketers and researchers alike have
varying views of the appropriateness and
ethics of ambush marketing.
• Typically, ambush marketing in sport takes
one of the following forms:
– Use of generic phrases
– Purchase of advertising time within the event
broadcast
(continued)
Ambush Marketing (continued)
– Presence in and around the event venue
– Conducting consumer promotions
– Offering congratulatory messages
The Right of Publicity
and Invasion of Privacy (continued)
• Many court cases related to sport marketing
have arisen based on these concepts, but
legal lines continue to be blurry regarding
them.