Stories

Rights holders can detect unauthorised use quickly, particularly when content is posted on social media or other online platforms. But it is not only online activity that matters – you should still be cautious in your bricks and mortar premises too.

2026 is packed with sporting moments.

There are plenty of major events on the horizon including the Paralympic Winter Games in March, the French Open in May, and the Football World Cup and Wimbledon in June and July.

And the key question your marketing teams will be asking is straightforward: how do we market our business without stepping on rights holders’ toes?

The three legal tripwires to be aware of (and how to stay on the right side of them):

1. Registered trade mark infringement

Registered trade marks might be infringed where someone uses in the course of trade an identical or similar sign for identical or similar goods or services. It is not just words and logos that can be registered as trade marks, for example Wimbledon’s iconic green and purple colours are registered as UK trade marks.

What you can do: start with the rights holder’s own guidance. Brands will normally publish guidelines setting out what they consider to be their IP, and these should be your first port of call.

A special caution for Olympic content: be especially cautious when using Olympic symbols, mottos, or references. The Olympics and Paralympics are highly protected by the Olympic Symbol etc. (Protection) Act 1995, which grants exclusive rights to the use of specific words, symbols, and phrases associated with the Games.

2. Passing off

The tort of passing off protects a business’s goodwill from misrepresentation. It is committed if someone makes a misrepresentation that leads or is likely to lead the public to believe that their goods or services are connected with the rights holder, causing damage to that rights holder.

What you can do: focus on promoting your offering in a way that avoids any suggestion of an official association with the rights holder or their tournament. Do not make your marketing suggest an official association or endorsement.

3. Copyright infringement

Copyright infringement occurs when someone uses a protected work (such as text, images, music, videos etc.) without the copyright owner's permission, by carrying out restricted acts like publishing, distributing, communicating to the public or adapting the work. If you do not own the copyright and do not have consent, reproducing or exploiting any substantial part of another’s original work will amount to infringement. It is important to note that this is also a qualitative, not quantitative test i.e., just because you are reproducing or exploiting a tiny part of someone else’s original work doesn’t mean that part isn’t substantial and hence you are infringing.

What you can do: make rights-checks part of your marketing workflow. In particular, do not use any photographs without ensuring you have the right to use such photographs and be especially careful with those taken by professional photographers.

Why are hosts and rights holders so protective of their IP?

Rights holders understandably want to protect their rights given the costs of running major tournaments and the sums of money needed from sponsors to provide these events for the public enjoyment.

Two main reasons are:

1. They will be licensing their IP to official sponsors/partners for significant sums, and they will want to keep these commercial partners happy. If sponsors see others freely using what hosts have claimed is their IP, those sponsors may try to pull out of the sponsorship/licensing deals – an embarrassing and costly outcome.

2. In some instances, they can also raise extra revenue by sending cease and desist letters requesting thousands of pounds from each “infringer”.  This marginal revenue can quickly add up.

So, what can you do to promote your brand safely?

The good news is that marketing and PR can (and should) continue! You just want to build in a few practical safeguards.

1. Do your research. As mentioned above, brands generally publish IP guidelines so check these first.

2. Create your own look and feel. Create and use your own imagery, logos, colourways and typefaces that are clearly distinct from the host’s brand. Do not match official colourways, typefaces, or design elements in any way.

3. Use properly licensed IP. Consider using stock photo services that offer clear commercial/business licensing terms, to reduce the risk of inadvertent infringement.

4. Keep references descriptive. If you want to allude to a particular sporting event in a purely descriptive, non-promotional context, this can be possible as plain text.

5. Separate event names from your branding and do not use event logos.

6. Stay generic with visuals and language. Use generic football/rugby/tennis or country-related images and/or terminology that does not incorporate any third-party IP.

Taking these precautionary steps now can save you money and help you avoid difficulties later. There are always grey areas. You want to ride the wave of excitement from the event, but avoid wiping out in a legal tangle. If your marketing team has a pitch deck ready and wants a final sanity check, do not hesitate to contact us.