Athletes and Their Rights to Compete and Commercialise

Seminar Overview

Sport Resolutions, in association with Winston & Strawn LLP, will be hosting its 4th seminar of 2019 on Tuesday 29th October at 1 Salisbury Square in London.

Peter Crowther, Managing Partner of Winston & Strawn LLP’s London office will be delivering the seminar. This will focus on the changing global landscape for athletes and their right to compete and maximise their commercial rights. In particular, the session will look at important developments such as the recent US women’s soccer case, the US NCAA class action case (Winston & Strawn was involved in both of these cases), changes to IOC Rule 40, and decisions such as the European Commission decision in the recent International Skating Union (ISU) case.

Seminar outcomes

The seminar will be interactive with ample opportunity throughout to ask questions and for discussion.

Topics

Session 1

• Consideration of an athlete’s IP and commercial rights and how they can comfortably sit with amateur athletics, the commercial and sponsorship interests of NGBs, international federations and major competitions.
• A review of the change to the IOC’s Rule 40 and other recent cases - the reasons for them and what they tell us.
• What does the future look like for these competing interests?

Session 2

• A review of the ISU case and how it might affect how international federations regulate and determine eligibility to compete.
• The threat of competitors, break-away leagues or non-affiliated competitions.
• The global applicability of the concepts set out by the European Commission particularly given the global nature of sport.

Who should attend?

• National Governing Bodies
• International federations
• Athletes
• Sporting clubs
• Lawyers working with athletes, National Governing Bodies and sports clubs
• Academics/Students