ICC unveils commercial rights protection programme for Cricket World Cup 2015
MUMBAI: Following a successful partnership during the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 and the ICC World Twenty20 2014, the ICC has continued its engagement of Copyright Integrity International (CII) to work closely with its in-house legal team on the management of a comprehensive rights protection programme for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which gets underway on 14 February, 2015 in Australia and New Zealand.
Based in Bengaluru, India, CII is a privately-held specialist in online and offline anti-piracy protection services for sports clients. It will provide the ICC with a suite of commercial rights-protection and anti-piracy services and solutions such as online content and broadcast protection, comprehensive trademark and brand protection, and media terms enforcement, in a programme designed to protect the ICC’s intellectual property rights from the threats of piracy, ambush marketing and unlicensed use.
ICC general counsel Iain Higgins said, “Our commercial partners and sponsors make our events possible and generate significant funding for the global game. The aim of the ICC’s commercial rights protection programme is to maintain the exclusivity of their association with our events. It is vital that those rights are protected so that our partners’ investments can be channelled into the development of cricket throughout our 105 Members.”
CII head – legal & business affairs Roshan Gopalakrishna added, “It’s a privilege to continue our engagement with a client such as the ICC to manage the commercial rights protection programme for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Our role will include not only the monitoring and enforcement of infringements but also an education programme for the public that will ensure enjoyment of and engagement with the event with due respect to the ICC’s commercial partners and sponsors.”
The ICC’s legal team has been working hard over the past few months to develop strategies to monitor and combat unlawful association with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
As part of that programme, it has recently released brand and content protection guidelines for the tournament. Through a series of easy to understand FAQs and illustrations, this document provides companies and members of the public with a useful guide to how they might associate with the event without infringing the rights that have been granted to the ICC’s official partners.
