Sports Science(Quality work, no plagarism, A+)

10 Sep Sports Science(Quality work, no plagarism, A+)

Glenn M. Wong, Essentials of Sports Law (4th ed. 2010).

Additional Resources:The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation  (Columbia Law Review Ass’n et. al. eds., 20th ed. 2015).

Discussion Guidelines Initial Post

Post your initial response to each forum by 11:55 pm ET on Thursday.

Initial posts are to be original in content and demonstrate a thorough analysis of the topic.

Don’t forget to support your statements with logical reasoning and provide attribution to your sources as necessary.

Replies to Classmates

Reply to at least three of your classmates in each forum by 11:55 pm ET on Sunday.

Responses to classmates should be informative, inquisitive and contribute to advancing knowledge of the topic.

WRITING EXPECTATIONS

All written submissions should be submitted in a font and page set-up that is readable and neat. It is recommended that students try to adhere to a consistent format, which is described below.

Typewritten in 12-point font in Times New Roman style and submitted inside the electronic classroom (unless classroom access is not possible and other arrangements have been approved by the professor).

Page margins Top, Bottom, Left Side and Right Side = 1 inch, with reasonable accommodation being made for special situations and online submission variances.

Name, Student ID and date must be at the top of the first page.

Don’t create cover pages.

Note: DO NOT use Wikipedia as a reference/ source when course work. APUS has banned the use of Wikipedia by their students as a source in papers and other coursework because of reliability problems. Wikipedia acknowledges the problems and agrees students should not use it as a source for academic papers, primarily because Wikipedia can not control changes to its content.

CITATION AND REFERENCE STYLE

The central function of legal citation is to allow the reader to efficiently locate the cited source. All courses in the Legal Studies program require that any narrative essay or composition format follow the legal citation guidelines set forth in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Review Ass’n et. al. eds., 20th ed. 2015). More information can be found in the Web Resources and Course Material links in the classroom.

Week 7

In Chapter 13, we will read about intellectual property law.  In Chapter 14, we will read about broadcasting and multimedia in sports.  In Chapter 15, we will read about business law in sports.

IP Law & Sports

Consider the following situation:

At the last World Cup in Brazil, the Olympic Committee reviewed and approved a number of official sponsors.  Each official sponsor contributed at least one million dollars to the Olympic Committee. Because of the high costs involved in sponsoring, many local Brazilian companies were prevented from sponsoring the event.  One local company had a novel idea.  The owner of the local Brazilian company directed his employees to post hundreds of banners and posters around town welcoming visitors to town for the Olympics. The posters and the banners included an Olympic symbol. The posters and banners were printed in English and gave the appearance that the local company was associated in some way with the Olympics.

Do you believe that the local company’s actions violated the Olympic Committee’s intellectual property rights?

Trademark Law

To understand this fact pattern, we need to understand what intellectual property is.   As set forth in our readings, intellectual property law addresses a wide array of topics including trademarks, copy rights, the right to privacy, and patent law.

Let’s briefly explore each of these concepts.

In our fact pattern, the Olympic symbol is a trademark.  A trademark is a word or symbol that an organization uses to identify and distinguish its services.   Another example of a trademark would be the logos of Coca-Cola or the McDonalds.

In our readings, we explored how trademarks can be fanciful, descriptive, collective, suggestive, generic, or a service mark.

In our fact pattern, the Olympic symbol can be either a collective or a service mark.   A collective mark is a symbol that represents an organization, while a service mark identifies and distinguishes the services of one entity from another.

In contrast, the symbols commonly associated with McDonalds and Coca Cola are arbitrary marks because the golden arches and the name Coke do not describe the products that are being offered for sale.

In contrast to the golden arches used by McDonalds and the use of the term Coke with cursive script by Coca Cola, companies that use marks that include descriptions of the product being sold are referred to as descriptive marks.  For example, a golf company that uses a logo that includes a golf ball would be an example of  the use of a descriptive mark.

In addition to arbitrary, descriptive, collective, and service marks, some companies use suggestive marks.  A suggestive mark is a mark that provides a hint about the goods or services being offered for sale.  For example, a company that uses a logo that includes a man carrying a box with the word “Pizza” would provide any potential consumers that pizza is being offered for sale by the company.

Finally, some companies use logos and trademarks that become so linked with a particular product that they become associated with the good or service.  For example, the mark Spandex has become associated with all tight fitting, black athletic pants.

To return to the above fact pattern, the Olympic Committee is likely to argue that the local Brazilian company infringed its mark.   Trademark infringement involves the unauthorized use of a trademark holder’s mark without express permission.  It is also likely that the Olympic Committee will argue that the Brazilian company’s use of the Olympic logo dilutes its brand.  Dilution occurs when a mark loses its ability to become associated with the good, service, or organization.  For example, by using the Olympic symbol many customers may have falsely believed that the Brazilian company was somehow associated with or endorsed by the Olympic Games.

If the Brazilian company did not have enough of money to sponsor the games, it could have entered into a limited licensing agreement with the Olympic Committee.  A license agreement is an agreement between a license holder and a company or individual that would like to use the trademark in an approved manner.

In addition to trademarks, intellectual property law also addresses:

Copyright law

Protects the ownership interests of the creators of literary and artistic works like books, movies,  and recordings.   For example, the NFL owns the rights to replay and broadcast its games.

Patent law

Protects the property ownerships of the inventors.   For example, an inventor who created a new invention and then registers that patent with the appropriate authorities the inventor would be entitled to protection.

Does Fantasy Sports Constitute a Copyright Violation?

In the past, many of the sports leagues argued that the use of statistics and the names of professional sports players constituted copyright violations. However, in recent years, many of the professional leagues have embraced fantasy sports. This is beginning to be heavily regulated or banned in many states.  We will have to watch for the new regulatory law as it is developed.

Misappropriation of a Player’s Likenesses and Team Logos

In addition to protecting trademarks, patents, and copyrights, intellectual property protects professional athlete’s likenesses from being improperly infringed.  For example, a local store could not use a professional player’s image or likeness in its advertisements without permission. Similarly,  a local restaurant cannot use the logos of the local professional sports teams in their advertisements without obtaining permission from the professional sports team.

Broadcasting Rights Can Be Infringed By Unauthorized Airing of Games

While the professional sports leagues have embraced fantasy sports leagues, the professional sports leagues vigorously guard against the unauthorized use of the broadcasts of their games.   For example, the National Football League and Major League Baseball have contracts with the cable and major television forth billions of dollars annually for the broadcast of games.  In addition to broadcasting games, professional leagues like the National Football League also produce movies and documentaries and these products are also protected by copyright law as well.  For example, many restaurants and bars have televisions and many of these restaurants and bars air sporting events.  However, these restaurants and bars may be violating copyright law if they have failed to purchase the public viewing rights to broadcast these games.  Each year, bars and restaurants are sued for violating the copyright rights of the sports leagues.

Negligent Marketing in Sports

Please review the below law review journal article regarding negligent marketing in the NFL. You will need to obtain the article from Nexis Uni in the APUS Library tab.

Richard M. Southall, The National Football League and Its “Culture of Intoxication:” A Negligent Marketing Analysis of Verni v.Lanzaro, 16 J. Legal Aspects of Sport 121 (2006).

Please review the article at the below link regarding a recent court case involving deceptive marketing and trade practices by a fantasy sports website.

http://fortune.com/2017/09/07/draftkings-fanduel-settle-accusations-deceptive-practices/

 

Please make sure to also review the following lessons:

Chapter 13 – Intellectual Property Law

Chapter 14 – Broadcasting and Multimedia

Chapter 15 – Business Law

 

 

1. Discussion assignment

Sports & Employment Law View Full Description

This week we read in our textbook about the various underpinnings involved in employment laws in the world of sports.  Various federal and state acts are controlling on issues in the wide world of sports, just as they are in any other career field.  Please read the following article:    

http://sportslaw.uslegal.com/employment-law-and-sports/

Next, choose one employment act listed in the above article and conduct research to find a sports law case that involved that act.  Discuss the case, newspaper article or law review journal article. Explain what happened in the sports law dispute, why the employment act was relevant and the result of the dispute.

2. Respond to discussion

In this week’s forum I will select an employment act and discuss the details of a case in which that act is relevant. The Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted in 1970 in order to provide standards for the health and safety of employees (“Employment Law and Sports – Sports Law”, 2019) . The Secretary of Labor is directly responsible for writing workplace regulations outlining what is considered to be sufficient workplace conditions. OSHA can be activated by an individual grievance or through official OSHA inspections.

In 2011, OSHA cited Dick’s Sporting Goods, at their Queensberry, Ney York location for six different alleged violations. It was determined that “two repeat violations with $33,000 in fines were cited for blocked fire extinguishers and lack of fire extinguisher training while four serious violations with $24,300 in fines were cited for the confined space hazards and a missing fire extinguisher”  (“US Labor Department’s OSHA cites Dick’s Sporting Goods for safety hazards at Queensbury, NY, location | Occupational Safety and Health Administration”, 2011 ). In total, Dick’s was facing 57,300 dollars in fines. OSHA regulations state that businesses who have been cited have 15 business days to get in compliance or dispute the citation. In this case, Dick’s successfully paid their fine and took the necessary steps to comply with OSHA’s workplace health and safety standards.

OSHA is a very important agency that helps protect the interests of employees in the workplace.

3. Respond to discussion

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act  requires that an employer treat pregnancy in the same approach that other disabilities are treated. Women who become temporarily disabled by pregnancy or childbirth must be provided with the same benefits as other disabled workers.  This includes things like sick leave, insurance, and similar benefits.  When it comes to sports,  Sporting officials owe a duty of care to participants to make the activity as safe as possible. It is important that there is a balance between pregnant women being able to participate in sport without harming themselves & their unborn child and the duty of care owed by the sporting club or organization.

A pregnancy discrimination case example would be Australia’s netball league.   In June 2001 The National Netball League, banned pregnant women from playing Netball, the main reason being to prevent future legal action against the netball body if a woman and a fetus suffer an injury in a netball game. At the time the captain of the Adelaide Ravens team, Trudy Gardener was 15 weeks pregnant. She was banned from playing in the upcoming National League after she disclosed her pregnancy. She filed a complaint against the ban through the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission on the basis of pregnancy discrimination. She also sought an injunction on the ban which would allow her to play in the upcoming National League finals, preventing her from losing match payments and sponsorship opportunities. She was granted an injunction which allowed her to continue to play in the final series.  In 2003 (2 years later) he ban was found to be discriminatory under the Sex Discrimination Act. Netball Australia accepted that they had acted in a discriminatory manner but argued that due to their status, acting as a voluntary body under the Sex Discrimination Act, their actions were exempt.

I think the right decision was made and it should be solely up to medical consultants to decide if she should play, and not based on the sole fact that she’s PREGNANT.