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Protection of Format

The document discusses new shorter sports formats that are becoming popular, like T20 cricket and The Hundred cricket format in England. It explains that the format or concept of a sports tournament itself cannot be protected by intellectual property law, but that rights are used to protect the value generated from events through names, branding, and reputation. Copyright can protect visual recordings and materials used to promote sports, but the protection of sports tournament formats depends on if the sport is purposive like cricket, or aesthetic like figure skating - with purposive sports generally not meeting copyright requirements.

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Rekha Anand
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111 views2 pages

Protection of Format

The document discusses new shorter sports formats that are becoming popular, like T20 cricket and The Hundred cricket format in England. It explains that the format or concept of a sports tournament itself cannot be protected by intellectual property law, but that rights are used to protect the value generated from events through names, branding, and reputation. Copyright can protect visual recordings and materials used to promote sports, but the protection of sports tournament formats depends on if the sport is purposive like cricket, or aesthetic like figure skating - with purposive sports generally not meeting copyright requirements.

Uploaded by

Rekha Anand
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I.

INTRODUCTION

New sport formats are revolutionising the world of sport and the manner in which sports
content is consumed. For instance, T20 cricket has led the way, particularly in India and
Australia, endorsing attendances and domestic TV viewing figures than nation’s test matches.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is taking things a step further by introducing a
new 100 ball format (“The Hundred”), an even shorter-form version of the game designed to
into an evening TV schedule. Besides cricket, a range of other international sports have
trialled new shorter formats, ranging from golf such as Hero Challenge, Golf Sixes, World
Super 6, athletics e.g. Nitro Athletics, tennis - Fast 4 Tennis, Tie Break Tens, netball - Fast 5
Netball, horseracing - Championship Racing, snooker - the Shoot-Out Tournament and
cycling - Hammer Series.

II. THE FORMAT OR THE IDEA OF THE SPORT TOURNAMENT

The idea or the concept of a sports format, from an IP law perspective, be protectable or
protected unless it is kept confidential. For instance, intellectual property rights will not
entitle anyone to prevent someone from organising and staging a 20 over cricket match. An
organiser could run into legal difficulties if they sought to name their event “The Big Bash”
or “The IPL”, but IP law cannot be used to prevent the simple staging of the new format by a
third party.

However, IP rights are constantly in use in the sports sector to secure and protect the value of
events and products, particularly now traditional revenue streams such as physical ticket sales
are being overtaken by new, less tangible sources of value, such as digital broadcasting and
sponsorship. For new sports formats, protection in the name, look and feel of an event is vital
to cornering the market in its chosen area, and ensuring competitors are not able to benefit

from the reputation/goodwill generated through the hard work of the originator of the format.

III. PROTECTION OF FORMAT OF SPORTS TOURNAMENTS UNDER


COPYRIGHT

Copyright can exist, with respect to sports, in recorded visual images or commentaries of
sports events, photographs of events, teams, athletes, materials used in administration and
promotion of the sport and the team/franchise. In respect of the event itself, the fixtures,
programs, published results, and computer programs may be subject to copyright protection.

The protection of format of sport tournament essentially depends on the type of


sporting event. Sporting events are divided into two types,

 Purposive Sports
 Aesthetic Sports.

Purposive Sports are the Sports in which aesthetic considerations which are
incidental. For example, cricket, football, rugby, hockey and all field based events.
Aesthetic sports are generally figure skating, synchronized swimming and
gymnastics.

Section 13 of the Act enunciates the category of works in which copyright subsists. It is hard
to argue that purposive sports fit into any of the existing categories. Such sports are clearly
not literary works or dramatic works or musical works or artistic works as per their definition
under the Act.

This statutory intention of not extending copyright protection to purposive sports is reflected
in the decision of the Delhi High Court in the case of Institute for Inner Studies v.
Charlotte Anderson. In this case, a Philippines based institute for pranic healing and arhatic
yoga sued the defendant for teaching yoga asanas claimed to be developed by Master Choa
Kok Sui, the founder of the Institute. The plaintiffs asserted copyright protection over the
yoga techniques and a trademark over the expression ‘Pranic Healing’. The High Court held
that yoga asanas were not copyrightable subject matter, either as literary works or dramatic
works as per their definition under the Act. It also made a cursory remark that sports fell short
of the requirements of fixation and predictability for them to be protected as a dramatic work.

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