(l-r): Adam Lovatt, Manuela Macchi, Sean Cottrell, Zane Shihab, Sean Corbett

Last Thursday, Keltie joined forces with LawInSport to present an afternoon of interactive presentations and discussions regarding the importance of IP in Sport.

To kick off the presentations, Sean Corbett, Brand Protection Manager at Formula One Management Limited, discussed the use and protection of IP and, in particular, trade marks, in sport and the battles that major sports brands face in protecting their trade marks and enforcing their rights. The take home message was to ensure that trade mark owners in the sports field allocate adequate resources and time to maintain, police and enhance their portfolios of registered trade marks to support the value of their brand and attract sponsors.

Next up was Zane Shihab, a Partner at Kerman & Co, who also doubles as In-house Legal Counsel for The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon) Limited (“Wimbledon”). Zane gave an interesting perspective on life as an in-house attorney and the differences between this experience and his time working in private practice. Of particular interest was his work in filing and registering the green and purple ribbon trade mark on behalf of Wimbledon in 2016 and the nature of the evidence required to support this (see the trade marks here and here).

Before the networking break, we also listened to Adam Lovatt, In-house Counsel at Dugout, about his role in launching this exciting new social media platform for leading football clubs and the considerations given to copyright ownership and brand protection during this process.

There was then time to have some tea and coffee and network with other attendees before settling back into seats for the panel discussion.

The panel consisted of speakers, Sean, Zane and Adam as well as head of Keltie’s Sports Trade Mark Practice, Manuela Macchi. Excellent questions, posed by CEO of LawInSport, Sean Cottrell as well as members of the audience, covered a wide range of issues including the impact of Brexit on IP protection, social media brand protection strategies from a sports brand’s perspective and the impact of athletes’ and sporting professionals’ actions (inside and outside of the sporting arena) on brand value.

This was an entertaining and insightful afternoon which closed with a lively drinks reception. Keltie would like to thank all the speakers as well as co-hosts LawInSport for their help in organising this great event.

Joanna Lucas Munce 22 November 2016