Sports Marketing Law

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2013:

Applicants without legal qualifications should note that subjects are offered in the discipline of law at an advanced graduate level. While every effort will be made to meet the needs of students trained in other fields, concessions will not be made in the general level of instruction or assessment. Most subjects assume the knowledge usually acquired in a degree in law (LLB, JD or equivalent). Applicants should note that admission to some subjects in the Melbourne Law Masters will be dependent upon the individual applicant’s educational background and professional experience.

The Melbourne Law Masters welcomes applications from students with disabilities. The inherent academic requirements for study in the Melbourne Law Masters are:

• The ability to attend a minimum of 75% of classes and actively engage in the analysis and critique of complex materials and debate;
• The ability to read, analyse and comprehend complex written legal materials and complex interdisciplinary materials;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate in writing a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and to critically evaluate these;
• The ability to clearly and independently communicate orally a knowledge and application of legal principles and interdisciplinary materials and critically evaluate these;
• The ability to work independently and as a part of a group;
• The ability to present orally and in writing legal analysis to a professional standard.

Students who feel their disability will inhibit them from meeting these inherent academic requirements are encouraged to contact the Disability Liaison Unit: www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Sponsorship announcements and media rights deals in sport can attract publicity like gold medals. The ingenuity of an ambush marketer may rival the game plan for an upset victory. If you are interested in the business of sport then this subject is a ‘must’. It surveys the legal underpinnings of modern sports marketing from the perspectives of key stakeholders: sports bodies, athletes, sponsors, the media and venue owners.

Conflict between rights holders and those who claim commercial free speech at the fringe of official rights is analysed. Students will be shown how specific new laws and increasingly intricate contractual allocation of rights aim to contain the ambusher.

This subject will be of interest to lawyers, sports and marketing executives, and player agents. One lecturer is a lawyer who has worked in the sports marketing industry for many years and the other is a well-known sports law academic.

This subject will consider the legal aspects of sports marketing in Australia. Attention will be paid to the different legal needs of key stakeholders in sport. A major theme will involve assessing the impact on the legal environment of sports marketing in an era of increased commercialism and professionalism in sport and of significant change in the technology of communication and marketing.

Principal topics will include:

• Commercial environment of sports marketing
• Intellectual property and related legal principles as they apply to sports marketing: Passing-off, copyright, designs, misleading or deceptive conduct, trade marks, trade names and internet domain names
• Laws promoting competition as they apply to sports marketing: Restraint of trade at common law and restrictive trade practices under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
• Olympic marketing arrangements and protection of Olympic insignia
• Athlete marketing rights, including personality rights, misleading or deceptive conduct and defamation
• Event, facility and organisation marketing, including rights to a spectacle
• Television and electronic media, including broadcast agreements, anti-siphoning laws, virtual advertising and regulation of alcoholic beverage advertising
• Regulation of tobacco advertising
• Principles of sponsorship agreements
• Ticketing.

A student who has successfully completed this subject should:

• Possess a general knowledge of the nature of sports marketing in Australia and internationally
• Understand the legal structure for sports marketing in Australia
• Understand the principles of sports marketing law and be able to apply them to common marketing and related transactions in sport
• Be able to engage in informed debate over the sufficiency of sports marketing law to serve the interests of various key stakeholders.

10,000 word research paper (100%) (31 July) on a topic approved by the subject coordinator

Core subject materials will be provided free of charge to all students. Some subjects require further texts to be purchased. Visit the Melbourne Law Masters website for more information about this subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.