Fashion and Sports, including the Olympics, and IP are forever interconnected. The 2024 Paris Olympics just showed this to the world last summer. Also, besides the Olympics, fashion and sports and IP will forever be connected.
LVMH, the premium sponsor of the 2024 Paris Olympics, just, early October, announced a 10y partnership with Formula 1 and just a couple of days ago announced a planned takeover of Football Club Paris.
Sportswear has integrated into everyday life. It is not anymore only worn in the gym, it has become fashionwear or leisurewear or athleisurewear, for comfort but also to be closely linked to the lifestyle of healthy people, of athletes, of celebrities and brand influencers. Sportswear and fashion wear have benefitted from the promotion of health care, of fitness and sports, from the influence of athletes and the huge platform on which they operate, among which the Olympics games, or other sport events broadcasted all over the world, where these athletes have become not only sports icons but also fashion and style icons.
Sports brands such as Adidas, Lululemon, Nike, Puma, Lacoste, etc. and fashion brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, etc., all top brands, collaborate reflecting their worth in terms of IP in their names, their logo’s, their products, etc. either protected by trademarks, design and model rights, copyrights or patent rights or a mix of these.
These collaborations may involve fashion brands on the one hand and sports brands on the other such as Burberry and Supreme, Adidas and Gucci, Dior and Nike, and many more or may involve athletes on the one hand and sports or fashion brands on the other such as tennis players Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and LVMH, the tennis players starring in the beautiful 2024 LVMH campaign, or the now number 1 world tennis player Jannik Sinner and Gucci, the tennis player starring a one of a kind monogrammed Gucci bag onto the Wimbledon court in 2023, or the football legends Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and LVMH, the players starring in an LVMH campaign before the FIFA World Cup at the end of 2022.
The athletes’ influence and worth for sports and fashion is huge. Their IP is extremely valuable.
When Lionel Messi signed for Inter Miami in 2023 the Miami team’s pink Adidas shirt sold out in a minute, not necessarily to be worn by football players or even sports men and women but all over the globe by anyone, not as sportswear but as fashionwear, making Adidas suddenly become a fashion brand.
No need to say that many IP rights are involved in these collaborations, in the first place those of the athletes, namely their rights in their images and in their names which often they have trademarked and which they can license to whoever wants to use these IP rights, thus creating an income through licensing against royalties. The exploitation of their IP rights indeed provides these athletes and celebrities an income, a return on investment related only to their celebrity and their IP.
Obviously also the sports and fashion brands such as LVMH and Gucci have trademark rights, copyrights, design and model rights, and patent rights involved, not only in their names, logo’s, monograms, but also in their products such as in the Gucci bag.
The value of IP involved in these collaborations is obvious, both for the athletes and for the sports and fashion brands.
Professional athletes have short careers and collaborations with sports or fashion brands provide a revenue stream through which they can create a “new”, after ‘sport’ life, revenue stream.
Their personal images, names, their celebrity, their brand are worth a million and can be exploited. In turn, the brands profit from the athletes celebrity and influence. Tennis woman and fashion designer Serena Williams, well known for her collaboration with Nike and her own S by Serena brand, once said that the tennis courts were her runway. It says it all. She was awarded the famous Council of Fashion Designers of America “Fashion Icon Award” in 2023.
Non athlete fashion designers also collaborate with sports and fashion brands. Stella McCartney’s shirt for the Arsenal women football team, released in September 2023, was sold out in minutes as soon as it was worn by influencer Mia Regan, girlfriend of Romeo Beckham, son of his famous father, at Stella’s Spring/Summer 2024 Paris Fashion Week show.
And where else would Fashion, Sport and IP make a better Olympic team than at the Olympic Games? The latter being a global spectacle.
The International Olympic Committee, the IOC, fully understands the value of IP, without which no Games would be possible, to begin with its own IP.
The Olympics IP rights protect the Olympic Properties, namely the unique aspects of the Games, and generate the necessary revenue through licensing, broadcasting, and merchandising thereof, necessary in order to organize the Olympics and in general to assist athletes and develop sport worldwide.
According to Rule 7 of the Olympic Charter, the Olympic Properties include the Olympic symbol as well as the Olympic flag, motto, anthem, identifiers (such as “Olympic Games” and “Games of the Olympiad”), designations, emblems, the Olympic flame and torches.
All rights to these Olympic Properties belong exclusively to the IOC, including rights to their use such as in relation to profit-making, commercial or advertising purposes.
The Olympic IP rights encompass trademarks, copyrights, designs and other including domain names, database rights, and potentially, trade secrets. In total, the IOC has globally registered around 3600 trademarks. The first trademark registered was the wordmark “OLYMPIA” in 1953.
The five interlocking rings representing the union of the five inhabited continents are also protected as a trademark, in black and white as well as in color. The trademark registration is for all 45 Nice classes, thus for all possible goods and services.
The official motto of all Olympic Games “CITIUS ALTIUS FORTIUS” has also been trademarked, since 1993 and is now also protected for all 45 classes as well as its English translation ‘ faster, higher, stronger’ and the slogans and mascots for each individual Olympic Games, for example the 2024 Paris Olympic slogan “GAMES WIDE OPEN” and mascot “Phryges” and many more.
The Olympic emblems which according to article 7.11 of the Olympic charter are an integrated design associating the Olympic rings with another distinctive element are protected by a combination of trademark law and copyright law such as the LA 2028 Olympic emblem.
The Olympic torches are protected by copyright and/or design- and model rights such as the Paris 2024 torch designed by Mathieu Lehabbeur.
The IOC has set rules and guidelines related to the commercial, promotional, educational and editorial use of its Olympic Properties. This use is reserved for the IOC, the Olympic Partners and the Olympic family, in connection with the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement, subject to pre-agreed terms. Partnership collaboration agreements and terms and conditions are provided and closely looked after. Control and preservation of the exclusivity rights by the IOC is obviously fundamental to safeguard the image of the Olympic Movement and the continued generation of revenue.
Fashion house LVMH was the premium Olympic partner of the 2024 Paris Olympics with a.o. its fashion maisons Berlutti (which outfitted the French Olympic team opening ceremony uniforms) and Dior (dressing Lady Gaga and Celine Dion). The LVMH license by the IOC was valued at an estimated 150 million euros. Sports brand Le Coq Sportif was official partner of the French Olympic and Paralympic athletes sports and leisure wear. These brands know the worth of being exclusively connected to the IOC and to the world of sports. The license to exclusive use of the Olympic Properties is a privilege, providing enormous visibility and exposure for these fashion brands who, in partnering with the IOC, use the world’s biggest, most trusted and most positive sports platform to bring their brands and products to the consumer with the aim to create added value and increasing product sales and benefice.
That goes too for the National Olympic Committee’s partners such as the Belgian fashion brands Café costume, the 2024 Paris Olympics partner for the Belgian Men’s opening ceremony uniforms, and Caroline Biss, partner for the Belgian Women’s opening ceremony uniforms and also for the American-Canadian sports brand Lululemon, official outfitter for team Canada at the 2024 Paris Games and outfitter to be at the Milan 2026 Winter Games and for Giorgio Armani’s EA7, who designed the Italian teams outfit for the 2024 Paris Olympics and many others.
Are you involved in Fashion and/or sports? Want to know more about IP in sports and fashion collaborations, do not hesitate to contact Christine De Keersmaeker: cdk@astrealaw.be
