Intellectual Property and Sports Essays in Honour of P. Bernt Hugenholtz

Intellectual Property and Sports celebrates the enormous achievements of Professor Bernt Hugenholtz in the field of intellectual property and information law. Renowned intellectual property law expert Bernt Hugenholtz once warned, chiding the voracity of copyright, that reducing the subject matter test to mere originality and personal stamp might lead to ‘infinite expansion of the concept of the work of authorship. Anything touched by human hand, including for instance sports performances, would be deemed a work’. Focus on sports-related intellectual property issues offers an ideal starting point for exploring core questions on information law. Legal rules in sports and intellectual property evolve in a climate pervaded by powerful lobby pressures with new technologies that have a profound impact on developments in the sports arena. Indeed, the applicability of copyright law on sports events and players’ moves is one of the many topics discussed in this volume, which spans issues from those related to players and their performances and achievements, via those relevant to sports event organisers and clubs, to questions concerning event reporting and data and the growing role of AI technologies in sports.