Chapter 14 Legal Aspects of Sport Marketing

14

Legal AspectsLegal Aspectsof Sport Marketingof Sport Marketing

C H A P T E R

Importance of Sport Law Relativeto 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

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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

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Determining Trademark Infringement (continued)

• The intent of the defendant in adopting the trademark

• The sophistication of potential consumers

• The evidence of actual confusion

Additional TrademarkProtection 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.

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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 AuthorshipThat 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

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Works of AuthorshipThat 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:

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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.

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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

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Ambush Marketing (continued)

– Presence in and around the event venue

– Conducting consumer promotions

– Offering congratulatory messages

The Right of Publicityand 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.