Sports Intellectual Property Law

Running head: SPORTS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
SPORTS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

SPORTS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW1
INDEX
Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
Meaning of Copyright..................................................................................................................3
History or background of Tattoo and Body Art...........................................................................5
Issues in context of Tattoo or Body Art.......................................................................................7
Trademark issues.......................................................................................................................13
Publicity issues..........................................................................................................................15
Moral and Performance rights...................................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................16
Reference...................................................................................................................................18

SPORTS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW2
Introduction
Under the United Kingdom law, a copyright is considered as the right against the
intangible property which subsists in certain subject-matters. In the United Kingdom, the
Copyright, Designs and Patent Act1, governs the law of copyright. The works which are
generally subsisted by the copyright can typically be divided into the two sub-classes, which are,
authorial works and the entrepreneurial or neighboring works. The authorial works are further
divided as the original literary works; dramatic works; artistic works and the original musical
works. In other hands, the entrepreneurial or the neighboring works are further divided into the
films; broadcasts; sound recordings and the published editions and the typographical
arrangements. The right of controlling the distribution and usage of their own work is granted to
the creator by the copyright. There is a potential copyright protection to every original work of
an author. For the purpose of being protected under the law of copyright, a work needs to fall
under any of the category of the literary, artistic, musical or dramatic work and must be an
original work, which means that it must not have been copied form any other source. The
pictorial works that have been fixed in the tangible expression medium are included in the
original artistic works which the law of copyright subsists. Certain designs of body art are
original works of the author which needs to be protected by the copyrights. Tattooing is
considered as an art which injects several ink forms beneath skin, and such has existed from over
a thousand years2. The term “tattoo” has derived from the word ‘tatau’ which is a Tahitian word,
that literally means “to mark”. The question arises that as the tattoos are a body art form, are they
capable of getting the protection under the United Kingdom’s law of copyright? Would the
1 Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 (CDPA).
2 Parker, Matthew W. "That Old Familiar Sting: Tattoos, Publicity, and Copyright." J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop.
L. 15 (2015): 762.

SPORTS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW3
subsequent alteration of a tattoo violate the exclusive rights of the tattoo artist for preparing
derivative works or the moral rights? Whether applying any trademark logo or picture in
someone’s body is considered as a commercial use or would the same creates any confusion or
any dilution of trademark? Whether both the artist and the subject would be liable? Nowadays, it
is hard to find a media celebrity or any sportsmen without having a tattoo or being inked, but
there is presence of a confusion regarding the ownership of the copyright and the design right of
such body art. The aim of this essay is to identify and analyze the issues that are arising related to
the tattoos, body arts and the image rights of the United Kingdom’s professional athletes and
their implications on them. This essay argues that certain body art or the tattoos of the
professional United Kingdom athletes’ needs to be protected by the United Kingdom’s law of
copyrights. For the purpose of identifying and analyzing the issues that are arising related to the
tattoos, body arts and the image rights of the United Kingdom’s professional athletes and their
implications on them, the following things are to be discussed, which are, meaning of copyright;
history or the background of the tattoos; the arising issues in context of tattoo or body art; the
issues of trademark; the issues of publicity, moral and performance rights and the conclusion.
Meaning of Copyright
The copyright has been classified as the right of property by the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act3. Under the law of copyright the creator is granted with the right of controlling the
distributing and usage of his own original work. All the original works have the potential of
being protected by the Copyright law; however, it was stated in the Berne Convention for the
protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886 that the member states were afforded with the
discretion of granting protection to certain categories of work in the international copyright
3 Ibid.