IPL teams seek trademark rights
ALL eight franchises of the Indian Premier League, including Shah Rukh Khans Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils have filed applications before government authorities in 12-13 cricket-playing countries seeking exclusive trademark rights for their names.
We are hiring lawyers to prepare strategies to protect our copyright in all cricket-playing nations where we will register our trademark. We are also seeking consultation with other franchisees as to whatever their plan could be regarding copyright issues, said the chief executive of Knight Riders Joy Bhattacharya.
The move by all IPL teams is in order to protect from copyright infringement earlier reported in South Africa and India. We also think that the IPL chairman Lalit Modi is planning to take IPL matches at a global level in the future. So it becomes imperative for the brand to register its brand in all cricket playing nations as well as in countries where it could be commercially viable, Bhattacharya added.
It is learnt that the diversified GMR group which runs Delhi Daredevils, the private equity backed Rajasthan Royals too are filing trademark registration in various countries, apart from Knight Riders.
Trademark protection helps ensure exclusivity and protect ownerships rights. The application , filed by Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures Pvt Ltd, for the exclusivity of trademarks has been sought under various categories, including Class 25 (deals with clothing, footwear) and Class 28 (games, playthings), said Rodney D Ryder, partner at Kochhar & Co, which handles Deccan Chargers as well as Delhi Daredevils. Like any other brand each one of the franchisees and IPL also see commercial opportunity and marketable potential outside the country especially in the cricketplaying nations therefore the services and products of the brand requires copyright protection , Ryder said.
The registration will not only comprise cricket playing nations like West Indies, Australia , Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, UK, New Zealand among others but also in nations where there are huge Indian population like US, Canada, Singapore and others.
It is believed that IPL has spurred a lot of interest within corporate India for business in South Africa. Corporate India is looking at South Africa as a potential market with many clients willing to now file trademark registration in SA before entering the market, says Rahul Chaudhry, partner of IP law firm LLS.
Source: ET
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