Theory and practice of intellectual property
№ 6 / 2023

ISSN (Print) 2308-0361
ISSN (Online) 2519-2744

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33731/62023.293214

Submitted     2023-10-31
Accepted      2023-11-20
Published      2023-12-17

The problems of sports events broadcasts protection in the context of copyright and related rights

Dmytro Doroshenko
Researcher of the Copyright and Related Rights Department of the Intellectual Property Scientific Research Institute of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine
Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5305-617X

Abstract
The article reveals the issues of sports events broadcasts protection in the current legal framework of Ukraine and the European Union. In particular, the article reflects the lack of legal determination of the objects that are being generated during sports events broadcasting, emphasizing that potentially the sports event itself, being unable to obtain copyright protection directly due to lack of creativity necessary for such kind of protection, still might be able to obtain copyright protection as an audiovisual work which is created during the broadcast process. The judgements which took place in several European countries, analysed in the article, provide the way for such a kind of protection, pointing to the condition of an appropriate level of creativity applied by the event’ and broadcast’ organizers regarding the sports event coverage. Thus, despite the absence of legal rules that determine the sports event broadcasting as an intellectual property rights object in Ukrainian and European legislation, the legal approach applied in some jurisdictions provides the background for using both legal and technological implements designed to block illegal broadcasts of sports events on the Internet. At the same time, the analysis of legal implements, provided by various European countries legislations, like dynamic injunctions, live blocking injunctions etc. reveals that such measures still seem to be not effective enough for purposes of protection of sports events organizers rights considering the amount of funds, which are spending by sponsors, media, and advertisers for sports events establishing and given that the economic value of such events usually is limited with the time of a sports event live broadcast. The author analyses the legal initiatives offered by the European Commission on respective purposes, determining possible ways of further effective protection of sports events broadcasting organizers in the future, including the potential possibility of sports event protection through the sui generis right and development of unified technical implements that would be applied by respective departments of big sports organizations.

Keywords: sports event broadcast, broadcasting organization’s program, related rights, audiovisual work, illegal retransmission, Internet piracy

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