Intellectual Property in Sports: Trademarks, Copyrights, and Publicity Rights
Intellectual Property in Sports: Key Legal Concepts
Trademarks and Service Marks
1. What is the legal term for a word, name, symbol, or device that an organization uses to identify and distinguish its services from the services of another organization and to indicate the source of the service?
Trademark Law
2. Which federal law provides trademark protections?
The Lanham Act
3. The mark NCAA, which stands for events and services related to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, is what type of mark?
A service mark
6. A golf ball that produces a loud screeching sound when hit is named the Screech Golf Ball and is an example of what type of trademark?
A descriptive mark
8. What are the elements of a claim for trademark infringement?
- Trademark owner must show that they have used and registered the mark.
- They must demonstrate that the other party’s use of the mark is likely to cause confusion or to deceive consumers about who is the true source of the trademark.
11. A T-shirt manufacturer designs shirts showing caricatures of certain generic “rich” athletes. These are not literal depictions but rather exaggerated images of these athletes. What would be the most likely result?
They are protected speech as parodies and not subject to trademark laws.
12. Which of the following trademarks would receive the strongest protection?
The Olympic symbol
13. The University of Ames has called their team the Scalpers. Their logo is a symbol of a Native American with an ax near his neck. The university applies for trademark protection. A likely result would be which of the following?
Trademark protection would be rejected because the mark was shown to be immoral, deceptive, scandalous, or disparaging.
14. Which of the following would constitute cybersquatting?
All of the above
Copyright Law
4. What area of law provides protection for forms of expression found in the media through television, media guides, radio broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, and other sources?
Copyright law
9. What is copyright infringement?
Unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a way that violates one of the owner’s exclusive rights in the copyright
15. Which of the following is permitted under the copyright law?
Using a portion of a copyrighted sport event for educational purposes
16. The NBA v. Motorola case stands for which of the following propositions?
None of the above
Right of Publicity and Ambush Marketing
5. What common law right protects the marketable identity of an athlete?
The right of publicity
10. Why is ambush marketing so harmful to a sports organization?
It harms companies that are official sponsors by weakening their relationship with the event because, although they have paid large amounts of money to become official sponsors, other companies try to associate with the event for free.
17. Which of the following best describes the ruling in the CBC v. MLBAM case?
A right of publicity was found to exist in the names and statistics of players in a baseball fantasy game, but the First Amendment took precedence over that right.
Patents in Sports
7. What type of things do sports organizations seek patent protection for?
- Equipment
- Apparel designs
- Styles of play