Euro 2024: Tips from England, Spain and France

With teams advancing to the knockout stages, Marisa Woutersen gathers lawyers from qualified countries to explore the tournament’s IP dynamics and their nation’s chances.

The UEFA Euro Championships 2024 is almost at halfway with the tournament's favourites shifting their focus to the knockout stages. 

Eight teams—Germany, France, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy—have already secured their spots in the decisive next round.

Germany, the first team to advance to the round of 16, celebrated a 2-0 victory over Hungary and optimism was high among German fans.

Off the pitch, German lawyers noted the true IP winners of the Euro Championships are the official sponsors and partners, who enjoy exclusive branding rights and extensive promotional opportunities.

WIPR caught up with lawyers from the qualified countries England, Spain, and France, to unpack the issues for sponsors, non-sponsors and broadcast rights—plus their tips (and hopes) for the next stage.

ENGLAND

Josh Charalambous and Samuel Coppard, partner and senior associate at RPC.

WIPR: What are typical IP challenges that arise for sponsors in the lead-up to and during the Euro championships?

Charalambous and Coppard: When it comes to the Euros, much like other major sports tournaments, we see the most activity around ambush marketing.

It's that balance between sponsors who have invested in becoming official partners of the events—with all that comes with the preparations and delivery of the marketing strategy—on the one hand, and companies who seek to creatively leverage the attention and eyeballs on such a massive sporting event on the other.

The broadcast sponsors can also be affected by IP issues, depending on how effective anti-piracy measures are.

Where a brand has paid for specific broadcast sponsorship rights with a leading broadcaster, it expects that broadcaster (and in turn, the rightsholder, UEFA) to clamp down on illegal streaming.

It's certainly a busy time!

What jurisdictional challenges are there to consider regarding IP rights of sponsors and non-sponsors during the tournament?

One of the greatest jurisdictional challenges is that IP rights are ultimately territorial.

For example, trademarks are registered in specific jurisdictions—and therefore brand owners need to ensure they have the relevant rights for that particular jurisdiction (eg, Germany) to be able to enforce their rights.

Fortunately, EU trade marks provide exclusive protection in all EU countries, which means brand owners can enforce their rights in a market of almost 500 million consumers.

However, brands should also ensure they have considered ways to protect their UK rights where events, finals and competitions take place in the UK.

How far do you think your country's team will go at this year's tournament?

The England team has the potential to go all the way but it's the hope that kills you.

We have exciting players like Foden, Bellingham, and Kane, but the question will be how will the team gel together this time around.

England were agonisingly close to winning the trophy three years ago, when the Three Lions were beaten by Italy on penalties in the Wembley final – we hope they can go one better this time.

What standout players should we look out for?

There are a lot of players at the Euros who have prolific brand management strategies and with star quality.

You have to watch-out for Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham.

Florian Wirtz will be a home favourite—and let's hope fans have picked wisely for the official EURO 2024 Fantasy Football game.

SPAIN

Jean-Yves Teindas, partner at Cuatrecasas

WIPR: What should non-sponsor brands be aware of during the tournament?

Teindas: Non-sponsor brands must be aware of various issues within the framework of Spanish IP law, especially in the context of a major sporting event such as the European Championship.

For illustrative purposes only, for example, they should consider that trademarks, logos, taglines, slogans, and other distinctive signs of the European Championship will be protected, so that any unauthorised use not covered by the corresponding agreement between the trademark owner and the company in question will constitute an infringement of the rights of the owner.

For example, the creative content generated for the event could be protected by copyright, so non-sponsor brands must avoid any unauthorised reproduction, distribution, or public communication of these contents.

It is also important to consider the implications of the “Ambush Marketing” strategies, raising issues related, among others, to unlawful advertising and unfair competition.

The enforcement against these practices is important to protect the interests of official sponsors, who have invested significant sums of money and resources with the purpose of securing an associative link with the championship.

What aspects of this year's tournament might differ from previous years in terms of IP management and enforcement?

The modes of broadcasting and rebroadcasting have evolved in recent years, with a notable increase in the offering of digital platforms and streaming services, including content creation by users.

This implies a more complex management of IP rights, as specific agreements must be established that consider the new ways of consuming sports content.

Similarly, the rise in the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence may lead to the creation of new forms of content that could infringe the IP rights related to the competition.

On the other hand, the fact the Olympic Gamesin Paris will take place very shortly after the Euro Championship in a place quite close to Germany has triggered brands to strengthen the range of measures to prevent ambush marketing strategies and other IP infringements.

Image rights: What effect can a good (or bad) tournament have on the licensing deals players are able to command afterwards?

The performance of the players has a substantial impact on the licensing agreements they may negotiate subsequently (regardless of the transfers of players that usually take place after such a great tournament).

A good performance by the players will allow them to gain greater visibility, which will probably attract brands interested in associating with their image.

The public perception of a player is important, as if they perform well in the competition (by exhibiting leadership qualities, by their repeated efforts to achieve victory, etc), they will convey a set of positive values to the audience.

A consumer who has followed the championship will, when seeing an image of that successful player, associate it with their effort, values, victories, etc.

Brands could be interested in collaborating with these players, as they will be able to transmit a lot of information with a single image.

On the other hand, a bad performance by the player during the competition can also have significant effects on subsequent agreements they may enter into with different brands.

For example, a performance that has been criticised or viewed negatively by the public could lead brands to not want to collaborate with the player.

Conversely, a performance that, while not criticised, has not been outstanding, may also not be of interest to brands since they will not be able to transmit all the values or messages they wish to transmit to the consumer public.

How far do you think your country's team will go?

I think Spain has a great team this year with very young and motivated players: I expect they will reach the semifinals at least.

What standout players should we look out for?

At the risk of not being original, I am sure that Mbappe and Bellingham will be amazing.

FRANCE

Rhadames Killy, founder of Varet Pres Killy.

WIPR: Broadcast rights: what are the challenges for broadcasters during a tournament like this?

Killy: Audiovisual piracy is a major challenge for sports organisers and broadcasters.

Under French law, organisers enjoy a right of ownership over the audiovisual exploitation of the competitions they organise.

As such, they market their rights to multiple broadcasters in multiple territories on an exclusive basis, which is the main source of funding for many sports.

As for broadcasters, they invest significant sums of money to acquire these exclusive broadcast rights.

Any form of audiovisual piracy, especially in the form of free live broadcasts accessible to the general public, will erode the value of their investments and damage the entire broadcast rights chain.

The French Parliament passed law no. 2021-1382 of October 25, 2021, on the regulation and protection of access to cultural works in the digital age, creating a special procedure to combat audiovisual piracy of sports broadcasts.

As a result, the president of the Judicial Court may order, if necessary under penalty, the implementation, for a period not exceeding twelve months, all proportionate measures, such as blocking, removal or de-referencing, to prevent access from the French territory to any online public communication service, unlawfully broadcasting the competition or whose main purpose is the unauthorised broadcasting of the competition.

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