PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Miguel Santos Almeida, Maria Novo Baptista and João Saúde, Sérvulo & Associados
leading commercial practices where the unauthorised use of a sign creates consumer confusion or exploits another person’s reputation, enabling individuals such as athletes to act against false endorsements or implied associations. The trade mark registration system itself includes safeguards against the misuse of personal identities. Registration of a sign containing a person’s name or image generally requires that person’s authorisation, and applications may be refused if the sign harms the individual’s reputation or infringes their moral rights. These protections are particularly relevant for well- known individuals, as the law also prevents the reg - istration or use of signs that take unfair advantage of, or damage, the distinctive character or reputation of a prestigious identity or mark. Registrations obtained in bad faith or through the unauthorised exploitation of another’s fame may be invalidated, and additional claims may arise in cases of dilution or tarnishment of a well-known name or image. Moreover, where unauthorised exploitation occurs, rights-holders have access to both civil and criminal enforcement mechanisms. 5.5 Licensing In Portugal, professional sports governing bodies can control competition-related IP, including trade marks, broadcast copyrights, databases and event rights. Clubs own their own trade marks and content and license them for merchandising, sponsorship and digi - tal uses, but cannot exploit competition IP indepen - dently. Professional athletes retain their personality and image rights and license their personal brands individually to sponsors or clubs on a contractual basis; these rights cannot be licensed by governing bodies without consent, except for limited collective team uses. For non-professional or college sports bodies and athletes, IP exploitation is more limited and less com - mercialised. Educational institutions or amateur fed - erations may control institutional trade marks, team names and event-related IP, but competitions are gen - erally not monetised at the same level as professional
sports. In the same sense, non-professional athletes retain their personality and image rights as individu - als, but their ability to license those rights is often constrained in practice by the absence of a developed sponsorship market. 5.6 Assignment of IP Rights In Portugal, IP rights may generally be assigned or licensed to third parties, though both trade mark and copyright transfers are subject to formal requirements and specific limitations. Trade mark assignments must be made in writing and, to be enforceable against third parties, must be recorded with the National Institute of Industrial Property, as unrecorded transfers are only effective between the contracting parties. Moreover, assignments may be total or partial, cover - ing all or only some of the goods or services; where a trade mark includes a personal name, company name or trade name, the agreement must contain a specific clause addressing that transfer to be legally valid. Copyright assignments are subject to stricter rules, reflecting the distinction between economic and moral rights. Moral rights remain with the author and cannot be transferred or waived, even where economic rights are assigned. All copyright transfers must be in writ - ing, and a total and permanent transfer of economic rights is only valid if executed by public deed. Partial transfers must precisely define the rights grant - ed and their duration, territorial scope and price, and the signatures must be notarised. If a temporary trans - fer does not specify a duration, the law presumes a maximum term of 25 years, or ten years for photo - graphic works or works of applied art. 5.7 Data in Sport In Portugal, sports data is now a core part of how sports are managed and commercialised. Teams and sports bodies use GPS wearables, inertial sensors and heart-rate data to monitor training load, manage fatigue, reduce injury risk and guide return-to-play decisions, with this approach firmly embedded at an elite level. The Portuguese Football Federation and leading clubs such as Benfica, Sporting and FC Porto combine this
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