SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Joaquín Jofre Fernández-Abascal, Jofre Sports Law
Notable Sports Examples Lionel Messi Successfully registered “MESSI” as a European trade mark (protecting him in Spain) after a long legal battle proving that his fame overrode confu - sion with the brand “Massi”. Kylian Mbappé owns trade marks for his crossed- arms celebration, protecting his likeness and brand across the EU. Juventus FC successfully sued a company in court for using their trade-marked logos on NFT digital playing cards without permission. Adidas has defended its three-band mark in Span - ish courts, such as against a bank whose logo was deemed too similar. 5.2 Copyright/Database Rights The Spanish jurisdiction recognises a robust system of copyright (referred to as Propiedad Intelectual ), pri - marily governed by the Intellectual Property Act (IPA), enacted via Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996. Legal Basis and Requirements Source Copyright is derived from statute, not common law. As a civil law jurisdiction, Spain relies on the consolidated Intellectual Property Act and EU Directives. Basic requirements To qualify for protection, a work must be: • original – an intellectual creation of the author; • expressed – protection applies to the expression of an idea, not the idea itself; and • fixed – it must be represented in some form (liter - ary, artistic or scientific). Registration Copyright is automatic upon the creation of the work; registration is not mandatory for protection. However, authors can register works at the Spanish Intellectual Property Registry. In terms of benefits, copyright provides prima facie evidence of the existence of the work and its owner - ship, shifting the burden of proof in legal disputes.
Defences to Infringement Common defences include:
• private copying – reproduction by a natural person for exclusive private use without commercial intent; • independent creation – proof that the work was created without copying the original; • fair use – using parts of a work for teaching or research purposes; and • statute of limitations – claims must generally be filed within five years of the infringement being known (some specific actions differ). Database Rights Spain recognises a sui generis database right. It pro - tects the substantial investment made in obtaining, verifying or presenting the contents of the database, rather than the originality of the content itself. Sports Example High-profile cases often involve LaLiga or other sports leagues protecting their fixture lists or real-time data feeds, where the investment in compiling accurate match data is the basis for claiming protection against unauthorised scraping by betting sites or media out - lets. 5.3 Recognising Personality/Image Rights Spain has a very strong and well-developed legal framework for image rights (known in Spain as Dere - cho a la propia imagen ). Unlike some jurisdictions where these rights are purely commercial, in Spain they are considered a fundamental right. Legal Recognition and Source Image rights in Spain are derived strictly from statu - tory and constitutional law, not common law. The rec - ognition is dual-layered: • constitutional level – Article 18.1 of the Spanish Constitution protects the right to honour, personal and family privacy, and one’s own image as funda - mental human rights; and • statutory level – the primary governing statute is Organic Law 1/1982.
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