Trademarks: where commercial value begins

The starting point for IP protection in sport is the trademark. A club’s crest, a league’s logo, an athlete’s name and signature, the distinctive typeface on a championship trophy: all of these are capable of trademark registration, and all of them represent commercial assets that attract infringers the moment they acquire value.

The mechanics of trademark protection in sport are straightforward in principle. A sports organisation registers its marks in the relevant classes of goods and services across the jurisdictions in which it operates or licenses its brand. Those registrations give the organisation the right to prevent third parties from using the same or confusingly similar marks without authorisation, and provide the legal foundation for enforcement action against counterfeiters, pirates, and ambush marketers.

The execution is harder. A Premier League club with a global fanbase may need trademark registrations in dozens of jurisdictions to adequately protect its brand. In Southeast Asia, where the demand for European football merchandise is enormous and counterfeit goods markets are well established, registrations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines are the minimum required for meaningful protection. Clubs and organisations that have not taken these steps will find themselves with limited recourse when their marks are exploited in these markets.

Merchandise and counterfeiting: the billion dollar problem

Counterfeit sports merchandise is one of the most visible and financially damaging forms of IP infringement in the industry. Replica jerseys, footwear, equipment, and accessories bearing the marks of famous clubs and sports brands are produced and sold at scale across physical markets and online platforms throughout Southeast Asia and beyond.

The challenge for rights holders is that enforcement against counterfeiting requires sustained effort across multiple fronts simultaneously. Border control measures, working with customs authorities to intercept counterfeit goods at the point of import or export, represent one important layer of protection. Market surveillance and test purchases, working with local enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute counterfeiters operating in physical markets, represent another. Online enforcement, including takedown notices against listings on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, and Tokopedia, has become an increasingly significant and resource-intensive component of any serious anti-counterfeiting programme.

For smaller clubs and organisations that lack the resources to pursue enforcement at scale, a targeted approach focused on the highest-value markets and the most egregious infringers is often more effective than attempting comprehensive coverage. The key is consistency: infringers are less likely to operate openly where they know that rights holders are actively monitoring and enforcing.

Broadcasting rights and digital piracy

The commercial heart of modern professional sport is the broadcasting deal. Television and streaming rights account for the largest share of revenue for most major leagues and governing bodies, and their protection is therefore among the most commercially critical IP challenges the industry faces.

The primary legal tool for protecting broadcasting rights is copyright, which subsists in the audiovisual content produced by broadcasters. Unauthorised streaming of live sports content, whether through dedicated piracy platforms, social media clips, or peer-to-peer distribution, constitutes copyright infringement and can be pursued through a range of legal mechanisms including injunctions, takedown notices, and in some jurisdictions, dynamic blocking orders that require internet service providers to block access to infringing streams in real time.

Malaysia has been at the forefront of dynamic blocking in Southeast Asia, with courts granting orders that have been used to protect major sporting events including the FIFA World Cup and Premier League matches. The effectiveness of these orders depends on rapid identification of infringing streams and swift judicial response, both of which require advance preparation and close coordination between rights holders, broadcasters, and legal representatives.

Athlete image rights: protecting personal commercial value

For elite athletes, the commercial value of their personal brand frequently rivals or exceeds the value of their playing or performance contracts. An athlete’s name, face, signature, and personal story are assets that sponsors, brands, and media organisations are willing to pay significant sums to be associated with, and protecting those assets requires a deliberate and proactive IP strategy.

The foundation of that strategy is trademark registration. Registering an athlete’s name and signature as trademarks, in the relevant classes and jurisdictions, gives the athlete and their management team a robust legal tool for preventing unauthorised commercial exploitation. It also creates a clearer basis for licensing arrangements, ensuring that the terms on which the athlete’s image is used by third parties are documented, enforceable, and financially beneficial.

Beyond trademark registration, athletes and their representatives should ensure that all endorsement and sponsorship agreements are carefully drafted to address the scope of permitted use, the exclusivity arrangements, the territories covered, and the procedures for dealing with unauthorised use. In an era where a single social media post can reach millions of people, the commercial implications of an inadequately drafted endorsement agreement can be substantial.

Ambush marketing: the uninvited competitor

Every major sporting event attracts a shadow commercial ecosystem of brands that seek to associate themselves with the event without paying for the privilege. Ambush marketing, whether through advertising campaigns timed to coincide with a major event, the distribution of branded merchandise near venues, or the strategic use of athletes and imagery to imply an official connection, represents a direct commercial attack on the value of official sponsorship packages.

The financial stakes are significant enough that event organisers, governing bodies, and official sponsors invest considerable resources in anti-ambush programmes. These programmes typically combine pre-event trademark and domain name clearance, contractual protections in venue agreements and accreditation terms, monitoring and rapid response teams during the event itself, and in some cases bespoke legislation enacted by host country governments to provide additional legal tools for enforcement.

For sponsors considering investments in major sporting events in Southeast Asia, understanding the anti-ambush framework in place for the relevant event and jurisdiction is an essential part of due diligence. A sponsorship package that cannot be protected is a sponsorship package whose value is fundamentally uncertain.

Conclusion

The big bucks in sports are protected by intellectual property rights, or they are not protected at all. Trademarks, copyright, image rights, and the enforcement mechanisms that support them are not administrative formalities; they are the commercial infrastructure that makes modern professional sport financially viable.

For every club, athlete, broadcaster, and sponsor operating in Southeast Asia, the message is the same. Invest in IP protection early, enforce it consistently, and never assume that commercial value will protect itself.

For further enquiries or advice, please contact us at kass@kass.asia for expert guidance.