Intellectual property in sports has become a central part of the business activities of clubs, associations and competition organizers. Major sporting events are no longer merely competitions taking place on the field, but large-scale commercial enterprises built around brands, sponsorship rights, merchandise and technology. The names of competitions and events, logos, the design of sporting goods, and the technologies used in gameplay and officiating are now assets with independent commercial value and may constitute a significant part of the economic value of an event or club.
The importance of intellectual property is particularly evident in international sporting events. Competition organizers seek to control the use of the event’s name and symbols, grant sponsors exclusive commercial rights, and prevent unauthorized parties from creating the impression of an official association with the competition. At the same time, sporting goods and technology companies invest in the development of balls, sensors, tracking systems and officiating technologies, which have themselves become significant commercial assets.
The legal protection of these assets is not based on a single right. Trademarks can protect names and logos and preserve the commercial association with an event, designs can protect the external appearance of products, and patents can protect new technological inventions. In many cases, a single sports product may incorporate several forms of protection simultaneously, with each right protecting a different aspect of the product.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup and recent legal proceedings illustrate how different forms of intellectual property rights interact in the commercial and technological management of professional sports. Disputes concerning the names of the Olympic Games, FIFA trademarks, the design of match balls and patents covering the technologies inside them demonstrate how intellectual property has become an integral part of the game itself.
Trademarks in Sports: “Paris 2024” and “Milano Cortina 2026”
The issue arose in Israel when the Olympic Committee of Israel applied to register the names “Paris 2024” and “Milano Cortina 2026” as trademarks, referring respectively to the Paris Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina. The applications covered a variety of goods and services relating to the Olympic Games.
The Trademark Department initially refused the applications. Among other grounds, it found that the marks lacked distinctive character, consisted of geographical names and described the goods and services for which registration was sought. It was also found that they were confusingly similar to earlier marks registered in the name of the International Olympic Committee. The Olympic Committee of Israel argued in response that the combinations of city and year were identified with the Olympic Games and that it operated in Israel as the “long arm” of the International Olympic Committee.
In a decision dated January 9, 2025, Intellectual Property Adjudicator Dr. Roya Israeli held that although combinations of a city and a year should generally remain available for public use, in this case the registrations were expressly limited to goods and services connected with the Olympic Games. The registrations would therefore not prevent others from using the names of the cities and the relevant years in other contexts. The Adjudicator held that the marks possessed inherent distinctive character and, with respect to “Paris 2024”, further found that the evidence demonstrated acquired distinctiveness through use.
That did not end the matter. The Adjudicator held that the reputation in the marks belonged primarily to the International Olympic Committee, because “Paris 2024” and “Milano Cortina 2026” were associated with the Olympic Games as a whole rather than specifically with the Israeli delegation. Accordingly, the marks were accepted for publication for opposition only subject to submission of an agreement between the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Committee of Israel authorizing their registration in the name of the Israeli committee.
Full decision of the Israel Patent Office.
The decision illustrates two separate questions that sports organizations should consider when building a brand around an event: whether the event name is capable of functioning as a trademark, and which of the entities involved in organizing and marketing the event owns the rights and goodwill associated with the mark.
Trademarks in Sports: FIFA v. PUMA
The same tension was clearly demonstrated in proceedings in Switzerland between FIFA and PUMA ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
PUMA registered the Swiss trademarks “PUMA WORLD CUP QATAR 2022” and “PUMA WORLD CUP 2022” in relation to, among other things, clothing, accessories and sporting goods. In May 2019, FIFA filed an action against PUMA seeking cancellation of the two registrations and an injunction against their use. PUMA responded with a counterclaim seeking cancellation of two stylized FIFA marks: “WORLD CUP 2022” and “QATAR 2022”.
After the Zurich Commercial Court dismissed both FIFA’s claim and PUMA’s counterclaim in 2021, the proceedings reached the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. In its judgment of April 6, 2022, in consolidated proceedings 4A_518/2021 and 4A_526/2021, the Court ordered the cancellation of all four marks, but for different reasons.
PUMA’s marks were cancelled because the combination of the PUMA brand with “WORLD CUP 2022” and “QATAR 2022” could create the impression among the public of an official commercial relationship between PUMA and the World Cup, including a sponsorship relationship, when no such relationship existed.
FIFA’s stylized “QATAR 2022” and “WORLD CUP 2022” marks were also cancelled. The Court held that the expressions were perceived primarily as identifying the sporting event itself rather than indicating a commercial source. The graphic elements included in the marks were likewise found insufficient to confer distinctiveness.
The proceedings did not end there. After the case was remitted to the Zurich Commercial Court for determination of the relief relating to use of the marks, the Court granted FIFA’s claim on June 28, 2022 and prohibited PUMA from using the marks in relation to the relevant products under unfair competition law.
The outcome highlights an important distinction in trademark law in the sports sector: the fact that the public associates a particular expression with a sporting event does not necessarily mean that a monopoly over that expression can be obtained through trademark registration. At the same time, a third party is not necessarily entitled to combine its own brand with the event name in a manner that creates a misleading impression of sponsorship or an official commercial relationship.
This distinction is particularly significant in the sports industry, where a substantial part of a brand’s value derives from the ability to grant sponsors an exclusive association with the event. FIFA defines Ambush Marketing as activity seeking to exploit interest in an event by creating a commercial association or advertising exposure without the authorization of the event organizer. Such activity can range from use of the competition’s name and symbols to campaigns designed to imply an official connection indirectly.
For a sports organization, therefore, trademark strategy and sponsorship strategy are not separate activities. The scope of rights that can be granted to a sponsor depends to a significant extent on the rights that the organization itself has succeeded in acquiring and maintaining.
Designs in Sports: TRIONDA at the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Intellectual property in sports does not protect only names and technologies. The external appearance of sporting equipment may also possess independent commercial value that can be protected through design registration.
TRIONDA, the official match ball of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, provides a clear example. The ball is constructed from four thermally bonded panels, and its panel configuration and visual design are central elements of the product’s distinctive appearance.
adidas protected the ball’s design through the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs. International Design DM/241148 was registered on October 10, 2024. WIPO itself presents the registration as an example of design protection for TRIONDA, the official match ball of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The example illustrates the distinction between a design and a patent. Design registration protects the visual features of the product, not the technological principle underlying the sensor or the manner in which the ball collects and transmits data. A single sports product may therefore simultaneously incorporate a protected design and technology that may be protected separately by patent rights.
The name TRIONDA itself is also a separate asset. adidas has filed applications to register the name as a trademark in relation to sporting goods. The same product can therefore contain several different layers of intellectual property: a trademark protecting the name, a design protecting the external appearance, and patents protecting technological solutions.
Patents in Sports: The Technology Inside Al Rihla
Patent protection addresses a different question: not how the product looks or how it is branded, but how the invention operates from a technological perspective. Technologies of this kind demonstrate the importance of considering patent protection at an early stage in the development of sports technologies.
At the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, an official World Cup match ball incorporating Connected Ball Technology was used for the first time. The Al Rihla ball contained an IMU sensor at its center, transmitting motion data to the VAR room at a rate of 500 times per second in order to identify the precise moment of contact with the ball. At the same time, 12 dedicated cameras tracked up to 29 points on each player’s body at a rate of 50 times per second. Combining these two sources of information enabled the semi-automated offside system to determine more accurately both the moment the ball was played and the position of the players at that moment.
On July 1, 2022, U.S. Patent Application No. 17/856,302 was filed by adidas and Foundry Collaborative, relating to a suspension system for an internal component within a sports ball. The application was published as US20240001203A1 and subsequently matured into U.S. Patent No. US12,121,776B2, granted on October 22, 2024.
The patent describes a sports ball containing a suspension system for a component positioned within the ball’s internal cavity. From an engineering perspective, the challenge is to secure an electronic component inside a ball that is kicked, spins and moves at high speed, while maintaining both the component’s position and functionality and the ball’s playing characteristics.
At the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a more advanced generation of Connected Ball Technology is used in the TRIONDA ball. The ball contains a 500Hz motion sensor that transmits movement data in real time to the VAR system and assists in accurately identifying the moment of contact with the ball. However, it should not be assumed that the patent covering the Al Rihla suspension system also protects the technological structure used in TRIONDA. These are different generations of the technology, and no specific patent should be attributed to TRIONDA’s sensor architecture without identifying the relevant published patent document.
The distinction is important: with respect to TRIONDA, one can point to International Design Registration DM/241148, while with respect to the suspension system used in the earlier generation of the ball, one can point to U.S. Patent No. US12,121,776B2. Each right protects a different aspect of the product.
The trend extends far beyond a single ball. An analysis published by WIPO in 2026 identified 9,669 football-related patent families published between 2016 and 2025. The number of patent families relating to referee-assistance technologies increased from 121 in 2016 to 435 in 2025, while patent families relating to connected balls increased from 54 to 127.
