Marquette University Law School Marquette Law Scholarly Commons Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 1-1-2011 The Over-Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Sport in the United States and Elsewhere J. Gordon Hylton Marquette University Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/facpub Part of the Law Commons Publication Information J. Gordon Hylton, The Over-Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Sport in the United States and Elsewhere, 21 J. Legal Aspects Sport 43 (2011). Copyright © 2011 by the Sport and Recreation Law Association. Repository Citation Hylton, J. Gordon, "The Over-Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Sport in the United States and Elsewhere" (2011). Faculty Publications. Paper 583. http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/facpub/583 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Over-Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Sport in the United States and Elsewhere* J. GORDON HYLTON Marquette University Law School In the modem era intellectual property rights have become a major source of revenue for the sports industry. Legal theories of copyright, trademark, right of publicity, and even patent have been successfully invoked to permit individual sports teams and the leagues and associations to which they belong to capture more and more revenue from their fans. Broadcasting rights have enabled the operators of teams and competitions to play before millions of spectators who are present vicariously rather than physically.