CROATIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Lovro Badžim, Badžim Law Practice
designs – under licensing agreements, creating reve - nue streams that support sporting activities. This area is governed entirely by statute, primarily through laws on trade marks, copyright and related rights, patents, and industrial design. In practice, the most commonly licensed rights include club and competition trade marks, broadcasting and audiovisual rights, merchandising designs, and, more rarely, patents for technical innovations. Registered rights are administered by the State Intellectual Prop - erty Office, while copyright protection arises automati - cally upon creation. Licensing agreements typically define scope, duration, territory, exclusivity, and fees, with rights-holders responsible for monitoring and enforcement. There is a clear divide between professional and non- professional sport. Professional clubs, federations, and elite athletes operate in a commercial environ - ment, regularly licensing media rights, merchandise, sponsorship uses of marks, and athletes’ name, image, and likeness. These arrangements can be financially significant but require close legal oversight. By contrast, amateur and university sports bodies usually license IP only to protect identity or support limited merchandising and local media coverage. Athletes may also license rights independently. While professionals often actively commercialise their image, amateur and student athletes tend to focus on basic protection rather than revenue generation. Overall, Croatian law offers a flexible licensing frame - work, with the scale of exploitation largely driven by the level of professionalisation in the sport. 5.6 Assignment of IP Rights In Croatia, intellectual property rights are generally freely transferable. Copyright, trade marks, patents, and industrial designs may be assigned or licensed unless a statute or the contract provides otherwise. Rights-holders may transfer rights in full or grant lim - ited use, subject to legal and contractual limits. IP rights follow the principle of territoriality, mean - ing that rights effective in Croatia are governed by Croatian law. Contractual restrictions – such as limits on use, duration, territory, or further transfer – bind
third parties only if they are properly recorded in the relevant public register (for example, trade marks or patents). There are key distinctions between rights. Economic copyright rights may be transferred, usually in writing, but moral rights (such as the right to be identified as the author) are non-transferable. Trade marks, pat - ents, and designs are freely assignable or licensable, though contracts often restrict sublicensing. Certain assets, such as public archives or protected cultural heritage, are subject to special statutory limits. Foreign individuals and companies may hold and transfer IP rights in Croatia without nationality-based restrictions. Special rules apply to works created in employment and to collective rights management. In practice, most limits on transfer arise from contract, and to be effective against third parties they must be duly registered. 5.7 Data in Sport In Croatia, the collection and use of sports data are mainly regulated by the Sports Act and related rules, with the National Sports Information System at the centre. This system brings together registers on ath - letes, competitions, results, clubs, coaches, facilities, and sports funding, and serves both regulatory and development purposes. The data covers athlete performance and status, offi - cial competition results, organisational records, and sports infrastructure, with sensitive data – such as health information – processed only in limited and legally defined cases. Data is entered and updated by federations, clubs, the Croatian Olympic Committee, and public authorities. Some information is publicly available as open data, while data sharing with other public systems is tightly regulated. Sports data is widely used for competition manage - ment, athlete development, training and scouting, public oversight, and media and digital services. It also supports commercial activities, including licens - ing to media, betting, and technology companies, and underpins products such as live-score apps, analytics tools, and sponsorship measurement. All use is sub -
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