Event Marks : A Necessary Form of Protection Against Ambush Marketing?
The main purpose of this work is to analyze whether event marks - a concept developed in Germany, proposing the creation of a new category of trademarks - are really needed as an additional form of protection against ambush marketing. Knowingly, major events have become big business and sponsorship is nowadays one of the main sources of financing for those events. With the increase in the sophistication of ambush marketing strategies, event organizers and official sponsors are constantly pushing for additional forms of protection for their exclusive agreements and, consequently, for protection of their investments. In this text, we critically analyze the concept of event marks, including jurisprudence which clearly rejected it in Germany. The analysis of case law will also include the situation in the European level, where the issue is still awaiting for a final word from the European Courts. Finally, we will examine the alternative of enactment of event-specific legislation and the detrimental effects that come attached to this type of legislation. At the end, we will provide readers with a brief overview of the framework of protection to event organizers and official sponsors in Brazil, as this country will host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Based on academic quality and relevance of topic, this paper has been selected for inclusion in the 2009/10 Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) Master Thesis Series