Playing Fair: Addressing Ip Infringements During Sporting Events

Major sporting events like the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics, and the Super Bowl attract billions of viewers and bring people together across cultures. These events shape national pride and cultural identity,providing massive sponsorship and brand visibility platforms. For example, the FIFA World Cup 2022 recorded over 5 billion mediaengagements.This immense audience underscores both the cultural significance and substantial commercial value inherent in these events, making robust Intellectual Property (IP) protection crucial due to their vulnerability to IP violations.

Acommon IP infringement associated with sporting events is Ambush Marketing,a tactic whereby companies attempt tobenefit fromthe visibility and publicity of a major event byassociating with it, despite not having secured official sponsorship or authorization from the organizers.