In the world of football, fair play is a principle that has an important role to play both on and off the pitch. The beautiful game's incredible success story, particularly in terms of the FIFA World Cup ™, not only attracts fans and official partners, but also the ambush marketing activities of companies seeking to secure themselves a slice of the rewards illicitly without offering any financial support in return, thus jeopardising the viability of organising a privately financed sporting event of the magnitude of the FIFA World Cup with its cumulative worldwide TV audiences of over 26 billion.

As well as appearing in authorised advertising, the Official Emblem, the Official Mascot and the FIFA World Cup Trophy are also used illegally by companies who want to exploit the value of these attractive marks - the FIFA World Cup Trophy alone is recognised by almost 90% of the world's population - for their own commercial gain. Warding off ambush marketing activities therefore has an integral role to play in FIFA's rights protection programme (RPP).

Interestingly, FIFA's official sponsors did not have any cause for concern in this respect until the early 1990s. It is only in the last decade or so that supposedly shrewd advertising strategies have been developed with more and more ways of bypassing the main sponsors by distributing free materials bearing bold, eye-catching company logos or similar insignia to the fans attending sporting events so as to use them as human billboards. Specialists in the field use the term "ambush marketing" to refer to these activities.

After its sporadic beginnings in 1994 with 258 cases across 39 countries, the problem first became a major concern when the 1998 FIFA World Cup ™ was held in France and 773 infringements of registered marks were discovered in 47 countries. Eight years on, 3,300 rights infringements were uncovered in 84 countries in relation to the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™. By contrast, when the 2002 event took place in Japan and Korea, there had been 1,884 cases in 94 countries, and with three-and-a-half years to go until the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™, there have already been 127 cases of rights' abuses, 70% of them in the host nation, South Africa. 19 of these incidents related to counterfeit products that have been confiscated by South African customs, thus illustrating the efficiency of FIFA's rights protection programme.

In recent years, FIFA has been criticised for its rights protection programme in some sections of the media. However, it should always be remembered that protecting the various partners involved, whether that be the venues, the TV and marketing rights holders or the players on the pitch, ultimately ensures that the staging of major events can be financed entirely from the private coffers of FIFA and the respective local organising committee. The cost of organising the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™ alone (including prize money) was a staggering EUR 1.1 billion. In addition, the revenue generated by the world's largest single-sport event must also foot the bill for FIFA's eleven other international tournaments, many of them in the women's game or at youth level.

As a result, FIFA has in recent years developed a comprehensive global rights protection programme, centred upon the registration of all official FIFA marks. At the same time, FIFA has been implementing its rights protection programme in close collaboration with various authorities - within the host nation and elsewhere - including police forces, customs authorities, patent offices and public prosecutors. More than 150 international specialists help the FIFA rights protection team to register marks and protect them at local level. The process also embraces this year's FIFA Women's World Cup in China. Effective cooperation with Chinese authorities has already led to the confiscation of thousands of counterfeit articles of merchandise, thus underlining the necessity of close collaboration with the relevant local security and customs authorities if large-scale manufacturers of counterfeit products are to be brought to justice.

FIFA itself decides if infringements are to be pursued and determines the appropriate way to do so. Before and during the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™, inaccurate reports frequently appeared in the media claiming that the sale of World Cup buns or World Cup bread by small local bakers was outlawed by FIFA and that the governing body was taking vigorous action against each and every infringement. These reports were, of course, complete nonsense, because there were no instances of FIFA taking such steps against a small business. In fact, FIFA's primary objective is to put a stop to the systematic, commercial abuse of its event marks on a wide scale in order to safeguard the rights of its partners.

Furthermore, it is not about small private enterprises that unsuspectingly give away World Cup tickets in prize draws or similar contests either. Cases like this are usually resolved swiftly out of court through an explanatory telephone call or a letter. Less that 20% of all incidents (approximately 700) actually ended up in the courts. This is because FIFA clearly differentiates between the deliberate commercial abuse of marks and descriptive use, and therefore carefully reviews each case on an individual basis, with the extent of any infringement determining whether or not FIFA issues a caution in order to safeguard its rights.

A decisive factor is whether ambush marketing activities signify a serious breach of rights. "Statistics show that the number of rights infringements has increased consistently over the last ten years. However, while the number of 'major cases' is falling, 'smaller cases' are becoming more and more common," Nevertheless, our biggest concern is that the rights of our partners are appropriately protected," explains Gregor Lentze, the head of FIFA Marketing & TV Germany, who led the team in charge of running FIFA's rights protection programme in the host nation of the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™.

Global network
FIFA is clearly not the only organisation facing the problem of counterfeit products. Generally speaking, the use of protected marks is being controlled more and more tightly all around the world due to the socio-economic damage that breaches can cause, whether in sport or other fields. The fashion industry, for example, is especially plagued by forgers and parasites. Governments and national authorities have become very sensitive to the problem, and public awareness is also increasing. France and South Africa are among the first nations to take explicit action by passing anti-ambush marketing laws to clamp down on these illicit activities. This will help FIFA in the host nation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™. In South Africa, article 9 paragraph d of the Trade Practice Act 1976 and article 15A of the Merchandise Marks Act number 17 of 1941 outlaw the misuse of registered marks and unfair competition.

Prevention is the key
The steps taken to prevent rights infringements begin years before a tournament and one of the most important measures is the education of the security and customs authorities in the host nation. FIFA also organises regular information seminars for local companies. For example, prior to the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™, FIFA staged joint events with chambers of trade and commerce to inform hundreds of companies from the regions around the venues about the options that were available to them in relation to the World Cup.

The reason for this is that during the tournament itself, FIFA's rights protection team could only take action on the spot by means of media monitoring and patrols in every venue, which confiscated unauthorised advertising materials in and around the stadiums. In 2006, over 100 employees of FIFA, the LOC and the local security authorities were in action on match days in and around the twelve stadiums and at the official fan fests in order to avert ambush marketing activities like the orange lederhosen produced by one Dutch brewery. Preventing the use of fans as "walking advertisements" is one of the primary objectives. Therefore, all companies, including official sponsors, are prohibited from handing out mass-produced articles around the stadiums.

Extensive mark registration programme
FIFA's rights protection programme is founded on national and international mark protection laws and anti-trust laws. The trademarks registered by FIFA bear the ™ insignia to make it easier for users around the globe to recognise that these marks are protected. FIFA has registered a raft of picture and word marks for its many competitions - no easy or cheap undertaking. For the Official Emblem of the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™, a total of 1,808 commercial samples were checked in a range of markets so as to avoid any nasty and costly surprises after the mark's registration.

Following months of exchanges between top international legal specialists on intellectual property, it was finally possible to register the definitive design with the relevant patent offices in May 2006 - just before the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™ kicked off in Germany. The Official Emblem that was publicly unveiled on 7 July 2006 has since been protected in an unprecedented 153 countries and in several hundred product categories. By comparison, the "laughing faces" emblem of the 2006 FIFA World Cup ™ was protected in 124 nations. Meanwhile, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, the most recognisable sporting trophy in the world, has over 700 mark protection entries in 134 countries.

As the key entities that make the contracts with its official sponsors and licensees so valuable, FIFA's marks form the foundations for the legal protection of its intellectual property. Only trademarks make it possible to profile a company or a commercial service in such a way that it is distinctive. In FIFA's case, the ultimate objective of the entire process is to ensure that it is in a position to continue to finance its twelve international tournaments in the men's, women's and youth games in the long term.