Some people may think football is a work of art… Well from a certain standpoint, it is. But from a legal perspective, it is certainly not. Zidane is no Cezanne, and Messi and is no Banksy. Football is not a copyrighted work.

As a consequence, protecting football competitions from unauthorized use of third parties has been a challenge for many lawyers.

With the view that sport competitions were worth protecting but not copyrighting, French Law has created the concept of the “organiser’s right”.

Pursuant to French Law, the mere fact of organising a competition, considering the efforts, resources and investments put in it gives the organiser the right to prevent any unauthorized use of the said competition.

We will introduce the principle behind this very particular right and provide some background on its implementation to media rights.

The French regulatory and...

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