UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Alistair McHenry, Sofia Antipatis and Rebecca Dods, Tyr
Sports bodies rely on copyright and database rights to protect broadcast footage, branding and digital assets. Common disputes involve unauthorised clip use, data scraping and misuse of official datasets, reflecting the commercial value of live scoring, analyt - ics products and betting data. 5.3 Recognising Personality/Image Rights The UK does not recognise a standalone statutory right to personality, publicity, or name, image or like - ness rights. Instead, protection derives from a com - bination of common law causes of action and cer - tain statutory mechanisms. Subsequently, the UK’s framework is more fragmented than that of jurisdic - tions which grant an explicit right of publicity but, in practice, athletes and public figures can protect and commercialise their image through a range of overlap - ping rights.
use of an athlete’s name, likeness or other identifying characteristics. Passing Off Passing off protects against the misrepresentation that a product or service is endorsed by, associated with, or otherwise connected to an athlete. To suc - ceed, the claimant must demonstrate: • goodwill in their name, image or brand; • a misrepresentation by the defendant, leading the public to believe there is some form of endorse - ment or connection; and • damage to that goodwill, typically through loss of control, dilution, or harm to commercial value. In practice, elite athletes with strong commercial profiles, such as those with sponsorship portfolios, merchandise lines or widely recognised personal branding, are well positioned to rely on passing off to challenge unauthorised endorsements or use of their likeness. Unfair Competition and Related Actions Although the UK does not recognise a generalised tort of unfair competition, a range of related common law and statutory actions can support the protection of personality rights. These include: • breach of confidence and misuse of private infor - mation, which can prevent the disclosure or com - mercialisation of private images or footage; • trade mark infringement, where an athlete has registered their name, initials, logo or signature as a trade mark; and • contractual enforcement, often via image rights provisions in player or endorsement agreements, which regulate how rights may be used by clubs, sponsors and third parties. 5.5 Licensing Professional Sports Bodies UK sports organisations and athletes frequently com - mercialise their IP through licensing arrangements. Professional governing bodies and clubs typically maintain broad portfolios of trade marks, copyrights and related rights, which they license across several major revenue streams, including:
Sources of Protection Individuals can rely on:
• Passing off (common law) – this remains the pri - mary route for protecting commercial reputation (see 5.4 Protecting Personality/Image Rights ). • Privacy and confidentiality – misuse of private information and breach of confidence can protect against unauthorised publication of private pho - tographs or sensitive personal material, although these claims are focused on privacy rather than the commercialisation of image. • Trade mark registration – many athletes register their names, initials, signatures, or logos as trade marks, eg, stylised monograms or slogans (see 5.1 Trade Marks ). • Contractual rights – in professional sport, clubs and NGBs routinely negotiate image rights clauses via specialised image rights companies to define how an athlete’s likeness may be used for com - mercial and marketing purposes. 5.4 Protecting Personality/Image Rights In the absence of a standalone statutory right to per - sonality or publicity, UK athletes rely primarily on com - mon law doctrines to prevent unauthorised commer - cial exploitation of their image. The most significant of these is the tort of “passing off”, which provides an established means of controlling the commercial
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