Association Right in Sports – the Case of Olympic Symbolics

Tomáš Gábriš

In: ADAMOVÁ, Z. (ed.) Nové technológie, internet a duševné vlastníctvo 6: Označovanie produktov. Trnava: Typi Universitatis Tyrnaviensis, spoločné pracovisko Trnavskej univerzity v Trnave a VEDY, vydavateľstva Slovenskej akadémie vied, 2024, pp. 100-118. ISBN 978-80-568-0709-5.

Summary: In the field of sports, the association right plays an important role, which includes the Olympic symbolics and its use. As stated earlier by I. Telec, these rights are actually rights to “a designation”, which deserve similar protection as provided to other intellectual property rights. The current legislation in Slovakia, based on the international legal obligations of the Slovak Republic, but also on the Olympic Charter and other internal standards (Manuals) of the International Olympic Committee and Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee, provides such protection to the Olympic symbolics in the provisions of the Sports Act from 2015. On a practical level, however, especially in the light of an older Czech court decision, it is not clear which entity is in fact actively entitled to file the appropriate lawsuit for the protection of these rights, as well as how the relevant amount of compensation should be calculated. It is also unclear, whether it is necessary to sue for damage, lost profit, for the provision of satisfaction or for the handing over of unjustified enrichment. It also remains questionable whether a special regulation of claims in the Sports Act is necessary at all, and whether it would be possible even without its existence to use the provisions of the Commercial Code of Slovakia on unfair competition, which offer a richer range of claims, the protection of which can be applied for. Alternatively, the Sec. 442a (2) of the Civil Code might also be applicable, regulating damages arising from intellectual property rights abuse. Unification of these three separate adjustments, or removing their duplicity, could also prevent a possible court dispute about the relationship between general and special regulation, namely whether it would be possible to claim protection directly on the basis of the Commercial Code or the Civil Code, without using the special regulation in the Sports Act. The currently negotiated draft amendment to the Sports Act solves many of these issues so as to remove the relevant doubts, taking inspiration from both the Commercial Code and the Civil Code.

URL: http://ntidv.iuridica.truni.sk/archive/ntidv-6/NTIDV-6-Gabris-Tomas.pdf

Bibliographic Citation

GÁBRIŠ, T. Asociačné právo v športe – prípad olympijskej symboliky. In: ADAMOVÁ, Z. (ed.) Nové technológie, internet a duševné vlastníctvo 6: Označovanie produktov. Trnava: Typi Universitatis Tyrnaviensis, spoločné pracovisko Trnavskej univerzity v Trnave a VEDY, vydavateľstva Slovenskej akadémie vied, 2024, pp. 100-118. ISBN 978-80-568-0709-5.