Image Rights in Sports : A Perspective on Intellectual Property Management

Abstract

     The expression of professional athletes at the sports competitions and at all relevant sports commercial activities in the public domain create images of themselves in sports businesses. The definition of image rights in sports is used to refer to professional athletes’ proprietary rights in their personality and the ability to exploit a celebrity image or personality, and to provide them the ability to use and profit from their famous status for commercial purposes. Illegal interference by third parties, also known as a breach of the right to exploit any image, in the intellectual property laws to protect and enforce rights of their own personality, occurs when one person intentionally uses a celebrity’s image without authorisation, causing economic harm and adverse impact of their reputation. The primary functions of intellectual property rights play an important role in explicating mechanisms of legal protection of image rights.

     This article provides a legal perspective on the interplay between use and exploitation of the athletes’ image rights. Thereafter, the article reflects on the implications of the Image rights clauses in employment and commercial agreements. It also provides a legal perspective on the opportunity to include the exploitation of the athletes' image rights from the employment and commercial agreements. It outlines the role of law in intellectual property laws and suggest solutions to make laws adaptive to changes in conditions in the global sports industry. The article concludes with a few guidelines on how to avoid infringement of image rights in sports without the owner’s permission.