Sports teams need to monitor cyberspace to protect the value of their IP

If anyone were to doubt the value of the intellectual property that comes with sports teams, one need only look at Sports Licensing and Sports Marketing, two resources published by EPM Communications. It’s no surprise then that sports organizations would face potential cybersquatting threats.

Two recent domain name disputes involved major sports organizations, as reported in Sports Litigation Alert and again here.

The PGA Tour and the National Football League (NFL) each fought recent cybersquatting disputes. In both cases, the complainant sports organization argued that its IP rights had been violated because: 1) the domain was confusingly similar to its trademarks; 2) the cybersquatter had no legitimate rights to the domain; and 3) the domain was registered and used in bad faith.

As a result of the vigilance of the complainants, ownership of world-golf-tour.net and superbowlconcierge.com were ordered transferred to the respective sports organizations.