Like you, we at K&L Gates have noted the increasing globalization of major sports bodies and businesses, and their corresponding need to obtain multi-jurisdictional legal help.  Often the attainment of their objectives/deals will be dependent on the understanding the lawyers in each jurisdiction have of the issues and commercial nuances facing those operating in the industry.

Frustration and delay can occur where the lawyers have varying degrees of experience and knowledge of the sports sector, its operation and commercial dynamics in different jurisdictions.  Our sports industry team provides the sports industry with that experience and knowledge on a national and international basis built up through many years of dedicated practice in this area.

Our sports lawyers cover every legal discipline - commercial and rights, IP, media and data (broadcasting, on-line and mobile telecommunications), entertainment, transactional, finance (including sports rights asset backed securitizations), branding and merchandising, franchising, tax, anti-trust competition and regulatory, labor and employment, employee benefits, real estate and corporate restructuring, as well as various venues of dispute resolution.

We have utilized these skills on many highly significant international deals and in arbitration and  litigation matters for leading global, U.S., European and U.K. sports governing bodies, professional sports teams/franchises, leagues, players, sponsors (global and domestic), broadcasters, mobile networks and on-line operators, merchandisers, hospitality and travel companies, betting and gaming operators, financiers, sports businesses and promoters.

Our team includes the head of USA Rugby and, until recently, the United States' representative on the International Rugby Board, the world governing body of rugby union and a director of the European Sponsorship Association (whose president is the Duke of Edinburgh), the mouthpiece of the sponsorship industry in Europe.  Members of our team lecture widely on sports issues domestically and overseas and write regularly for leading publications.  We also co-authored the leading U.K. textbook in the area, "Butterworth:  Sports Law & Practice."  Additionally, our attorneys have motorsports industry experience representing team owners, manufacturers and racing-related suppliers and distributors, and we provide a unique understanding of the legal and business issues faced by motorsports-related companies.

Our experience encompasses the following groups in the sports community:

• Leagues, Governing Bodies and Major Events
• Clubs, Teams and Franchises
• Sports Businesses
• Motorsports

We have advised and counseled clients in all of the following areas:

• Media Rights Experience
• Sponsorship
• Merchandising/Licensing Exploitation
• Betting and Gaming
• Hospitality/Travel Tours
• Sports Agency Arrangements
• Anti-Trust, Competition and Regulatory
• Anti-Counterfeiting and Sports Brand Protection
• Sports Litigation and Dispute Resolution
• Finance
• Stadium Construction and Infrastructure
• Employment and Employee Benefits
• Strategic Corporate Organization and Tax Advice

For a detailed listing of our representative transactions for each of these groups, and in each of these areas, please click here.

Leagues, Governing Bodies and Major Events
We have counseled and advised domestic, European and global governing bodies, leagues and organizers of major sporting events on the full range of regulatory, enforcement and commercial rights issues affecting them including:

• World Wrestling Entertainment - For nearly two decades, we have been principal outside counsel for WWE handling all major litigation matters and business counseling including taking the company public in the U.S.;
  
  
• the PGA European Tour, the players’ organization which administers golf's European Tour, on all legal matters, including regulatory issues and the protection and exploitation of its commercial rights, particularly contacts with promoters, sponsors and services providers;
  
  
• National Greyhound Racing Club, the U.K. governing body for greyhound racing, on all legal matters including regulatory and disciplinary matters, doping issues, registration and licensing, media and data rights ownership and exploitation, and anti-trust/competition;
  
  
• Ryder Cup Limited on a range of matters, particularly the commercial rights pertaining to this leading international event, the legal structure and hosting arrangements;
  
  
• the joint venture entities representing the top 24 professional rugby union clubs in England on establishing and structuring the new professional game, including commercial rights, some of which are centralized and controlled by the new  league.  We also conducted and concluded negotiations with the Rugby Football Union (the English governing body of rugby union) to establish the new professional structure of rugby union in England, both club and international;
  
  
• the ICC's (cricket's world governing body) commercial arm on the first central sale by tender of global media, sponsorship and other rights to a series of events, including the Cricket World Cups in 2003 and 2007 for a minimum guarantee of $550 million to World Sports Group plc, a U.K. listed company, backed by News Corporation;
  
  
• the organizing body of the first jointly staged Cricket World Cup, particularly the international IP and tax structure and sale by tender of the television rights; 
  
  
• the U.K. governing body of motor racing on various matters relating to its commercial and media rights and events;
  
  
• XFL on a range of matters related to the start-up and running of a new professional football league, including patent, trademark, copyright, stadium leases, internet rights, broadcast rights and numerous other matters; and
  
  
• the U.S. stock car governing body on various matters related to its commercial rights.

Clubs/Franchises
Our work for clubs and franchises internationally includes advising:

• a listed U.K. premiership soccer club on a variety of matters, including a strategic media rights deal with the leading U.K. broadcaster involving an equity subscription by that broadcaster;
  
  
• The Utah Jazz basketball team, a member of the National Basketball Association, in all personnel-related issues, including player, coach and management contracts, player trade and draft issues, foreign player contract issues, player discipline and player arbitration matters, and representing the team in connection with league matters and as a member of the NBA Board of Governors.

Sports Businesses
We have counseled and advised almost every type of business involved in sport and on every type of arrangement including promoters, rights owners and rights buyers including:

• Frank Warren, the famous U.K. boxing promoter, on matters generally (intellectual property, media, commercial, corporate tax, dispute resolution), including recently the restructuring of his business resulting in its acquisition by a U.K. listed company, Sports Network plc, in return for equity;
  
  
• Sportech plc when it acquired the famous U.K. Littlewoods Leisure business from the Littlewoods Organisation.  Littlewoods Leisure comprises Littlewoods Pools, Littlewoods Lotteries and the telephone and Internet bookmakers, Littlewoods Bet Direct.  We have since acted for Sportech and for Littlewoods Leisure on a number of sports, betting and gaming related matters, including the acquisition of Zetters Pools;
  
  
• Arena Leisure plc, a U.K. listed company and one of the largest owners of horserace courses in the U.K.  We acted for Arena on its original reverse takeover by the shareholders of Lingfield Park, and on its subsequent acquisition of its racecourse portfolio comprising Windsor, Wolverhampton, Southwell, Folkestone and Worcester racecourses, in addition to Lingfield Park.  We also are advising Arena in relation to the establishment of the U.K.'s first “racino” at Wolverhampton Racecourse, a race-themed casino intended to take advantage of the anticipated relaxation of the law in the U.K. relating to casinos;
  
  
• various joint venture arrangements including a consortium bidding for commercial rights to Rugby World Cups, on the stadium-sharing arrangements between a leading U.K. soccer club and rugby union club and on the possible merger of a U.K. professional soccer club and leading professional rugby union club; and
  
  
• an international golf tournament developer and promoter in contracts to develop and market to media outlets a high-profile golf tournament in Asia involving well known U.S. and worldwide golf professionals.

Media Rights Experience
The work we have carried out on the delivery of sporting audio-visual material includes counseling and advising:

• On behalf of World Wrestling Entertainment, we have litigated their right to switch their cable programming to other networks and advised on a wide variety of defamation and First Amendment issues in the U.S.  We have obtained judicial rulings extending copyright protection to the characters created by WWE, as well as rulings extending copyright pre-emption protections to various aspects of WWE's business.
  
  
• the Association of Surfing Professionals International Limited, the world governing body of surfing, on a joint venture in relation to the operation and exploitation of its on-line operation;
  
  
• broadcasters on media arrangements with leading U.K. premiership soccer clubs, involving agency arrangements, commercial rights and technology issues and debt and equity financing;
  
  
• the host of a major sport's world cup on the tender and sale of its television rights;
  
  
• the ICC's commercial arm on media matters relating to its events, including host broadcasting issues, copyright, production and distribution;
  
  
• America Online on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, particularly various Internet and new media matters, including sports issues;
  
  
• PGA European Tour on its media joint venture with TransWorld International, the television arm of International Management Group;
  
  
• PGA European Tour Productions on a range of commercial and media issues;
  
  
• Ryder Cup on various media rights issues;
  
  
• Frank Warren/Sports Network on various media-related matters, including arrangements for the streaming of boxing bouts on the “fightnight” website;
  
  
• the Press Association on various corporate and commercial matters including in relation to PA's agreement with Football Data Co. in the U.K. (a joint venture between the U.K. Premier League and the Football League, the leading soccer leagues in the U.K.) regarding the sale and distribution of rights and football data and fixture lists.
  
  
• the National Greyhound Racing Club, the administrative body which regulates greyhound racing in the U.K. regarding syndication of form data and associated database rights;
  
  
• T-Mobile and Orange, leading telecommunications providers, on sports content matters;
  
  
• clients on the supply and onward syndication worldwide of sports data for use in 3G mobile telephones and on arrangements for the supply of sports content via SMS;
  
  
• GBR Team Challenge (Britain's America's Cup challenge) on various new media and other arrangements;
  
  
• Rebel Media Limited on production and distribution agreements and ownership of sports archives;
  
  
• a title sponsor of a leading rowing event on the international television programming distribution of that event; 
  
  
• a leading European broadcaster under the U.S. ownership on sports content matters including news access; and
  
  
• XFL on various commercial and media rights issues.

Sponsorship
We have counseled and advised on the full range of sponsorship-related issues for every type of property owner, leagues, events, players, teams/franchises and for most types of sponsors, both global, regional and domestic.  These include:

• title and event sponsorship agreements:
  • Lloyds TSB's title sponsorship of Rugby Union 6 Nations Championship
    
    
  • Kraft Jacobs Suchard Limited/Vision 40 Limited's sponsorship of the British Basketball Championship
    
    
  • Casio Europe Limited's title sponsorship of the “G Shock” Snowboarding Championship
    
    
  • title sponsorships of golfing events for the PGA European Tour
    
    
  • title sponsorship of the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race
    
    
  • title sponsorship of US stock car series by Nextel;
    
    
• teams/franchise sponsorships:
  • Hewlett Packard's principal sponsorship of the Williams F1 team
    
    
  • NTL's club and shirt sponsorships of U.K. leading football clubs (Glasgow Celtic, Glasgow Rangers, Newcastle United)
    
    
  • T Mobile's sponsorship of various English Premiership Clubs and the England National team (including shirt sponsorship and licensing arrangements);
    
    
  • kit sponsorship - including for Puma U.K. on its kit sponsorship deal with U.K. premiership soccer clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham.  The financial package was unique and the deal offers distribution in more than 80 countries globally;
    
    
  • broadcast sponsorships - including Scottish Life's broadcast sponsorship of Sky Sport's U.K. premier league football pay per view coverage;
    
    
  • challenge sponsorship - including Flying Pictures, a leading global operator of hot air balloons which attempted to break the world manned balloon attitude record, on its sponsorship with Qinetiq; 
    
    
  • Government backed sports sponsorship - we advise the U.K. Government's Sportsmatch scheme which matches pound for pound commercial sponsorship of qualifying sports events and activities.  The scheme is run and administered by the Institute of Sports Sponsorship (which is a subsidiary of the European Sponsorship Association) for whom we prepared a model sponsorship contract for members, legal guidelines and a submission for the broadcasting code on sport;

Merchandising/Licensing Exploitation
We have advised and counseled on a full range of merchandising matters, using our specialist knowledge of sports rights, intellectual property (especially trademark and brand protection and exploitation), manufacturing, agency distribution and retailing matters including counseling and advising:

• WWE on a wide variety of licensing issues related to product licensing, subscription-on-demand licensing, and licensing of television rights to their programs.  Additionally we have litigated numerous cases involving claims of trademark infringement and publicity rights;
  
  
• Puma U.K. on various endorsement agreements with individuals and other matters relating to its range of sports products;
  
  
• Speedo on various merchandise related matters including its relationship with teams and athletes it sponsors;
  
  
• the joint venture representing the professional rugby union clubs on the appointment of its merchandising agent and centralized control of brands for onward licensing to merchandisers;
  
  
• A leading marketing business, on its arrangements with the England and Wales Cricket Board, the English governing body of cricket, to exploit graphic characters it designed for association with cricket; 
  
  
• Woodworm Company a leading golf and cricket products designer and manufacturer on various manufacturing, distribution and player endorsement arrangements internationally including Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff and Ernie Els and on investment and corporate matters; 
  
  
• XFL on a wide variety of trademark, copyright and anti-counterfeiting matters, both in litigation and non-litigation contexts.

Betting and Gaming
Our Sports Group works closely with our Betting and Gaming Group and has particular experience in advising on the full range of betting and gaming services, including the regulatory regime that underpins the industry using sports content, including advising:

• betting shops in the U.K. such as Coral Eurobet and Capital Sports;
  
  
• casinos such as the Gala/Harrahs joint venture in the U.K., Gala Regional Developments Limited;
  
  
• international Off Track Betting organization operating in the Caribbean region;
  
  
• sports/venue owners such as Arena Leisure plc, National Greyhound Racing Club, PGA European Tour;
  
  
• pools betting such as for Littlewoods and Zetters in the U.K.;
  
  
• spread betting for Sporting Index Holdings Limited, a leading provider of on-line sports-related spread betting;
  
  
• technology - such as, funding mechanisms for on-line casinos and sports betting shops;
  
  
• betting exchanges including Betfair and the Trading Spots plc;
  
  
• on marketing and advertising issues such as for Ask Jeeves and CNBC (Europe) Limited; and
  
  
• on on-line/mobile content issues for AOL, Orange and T-Mobile.

Hospitality/Travel Tours
We have counseled and advised on various hospitality, catering and tour and travel matters pertaining to sport including:

• Compass Group plc on aspects of the establishment of the Twickenham hospitality experience, a joint venture with the English governing body of rugby union, the Rugby Football Union, also owner of the Twickenham stadium where England's international matches are played and on tenders to major international sports events;
  
  
• Rugby Hospitality 99 Limited, a joint venture of hospitality providers, on its acquisition of the hospitality rights to the Rugby World Cup 1999; and
  
  
• various racecourses, football/rugby clubs and golf events on hospitality/catering arrangements.

Sports Agency Arrangements
We have counseled and advised on numerous representation agreements for a variety of sports, including rugby union, soccer, horseracing, yacht racing and cricket.  Our clients include principals (such as sponsors, rights holders and governing bodies) as well as agents.
Examples include:

• the Association of Surfing Professionals Limited, the world governing body of surfing on its representation agreement with Sports World Media Group plc for the exploitation of rights relating to its events;
  
  
• GBR Team Challenge, Britain's challenge for the America's Cup, on agency appointments including for the next America's Cup in 2007;
  
  
• Powerboat No. 1, the owner of the promotional rights to the international powerboat endurance racing championship on the appointment of its sponsorship and promotion agents;
  
  
• Sporting Frontiers, a leading sports agency, on various agency appointment, to leading sponsors and sports property owners, including major global sports events;
  
  
• the joint venture companies for the top 24 professional English Rugby Union Clubs on the appointment of a centralized merchandising and licensing agent;
  
  
• a leading broadcaster on its appointment as a leading U.K. Premier League football clubs media and commercial rights agent; and
  
  
• a leading Premier League football club on the appointment of BSkyB as its media and commercial rights agent.

Anti-Trust, Competition and Regulatory
We have advised on U.S., U.K. and European anti-trust/competition law issues affecting sports rights and have dealt with most regulatory authorities, including a detailed investigation into event arrangements.  We have also counseled and advised on wide-ranging constitutional and regulatory matters affecting governing bodies of

• commercial sponsors;
• soccer;
• golf;
• football;
• rugby union;
• cricket;
• motor racing;
• basketball;
• sailing;
• windsurfing;
• wake boarding; and
• greyhound racing.

Our anti-trust/competition experience in the sports sector includes advising and counseling:

• a leading sports governing body on European and U.K. competition law issues relating to media rights;
  
  
• a leading U.K. venue owner on the legality and competition law implications of certain proposed changes by its sport's world governing body;
  
  
• leading U.K. soccer clubs on U.K. and European competition law issues relating to media rights;
  
  
• the National Greyhound Racing Club on competition issues relating to the supply of data and associated database rights and the legality of certain license fees;
  
  
• a commercial rights buyer on an international investigation into ticket distribution for a major sports World Cup competition; and
  
  
• a leading U.K. press agency on various issues relating to the supply of data and the pricing of that data.

Anti-Counterfeiting and Sports Brand Protection
As part of our general trademark and copyright litigation practice, K&L Gates has developed significant expertise in the area of anti-counterfeiting. Our experience is most prominent in representing sports and entertainment clients, but we have also represented clients involved in clothing, motion pictures, chemicals and food and beverages. As a result, we have developed an extensive, cutting-edge federal court practice under the Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984 and other portions of the Lanham Act, the Copyright Act and other pertinent federal and state laws.

K&L Gates employs the ex parte seizure process, along with standard litigation practice, to protect clients from product and merchandise counterfeiting that pervades many marketplaces. Our lawyers have developed and exploited the process to a considerable, and in some cases unprecedented, degree in defense of valuable intellectual property rights.

From Madison Square Garden to the Los Angeles Coliseum, K&L Gates has served hundreds of counterfeiters at live sporting and entertainment events and seized thousands of counterfeit items and executed raids on factories, warehouses and commercial outlets involved in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit products. These seizures typically entail application for a temporary restraining and seizure order in federal district court and close coordination with private investigators and U.S. Marshals for proper enforcement of those orders. These enforcement actions not only help our clients avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenues but also enhance the value of their IP assets by averting irreparable reputational damage and consumer confidence erosion. In the process, we help our clients send a message that counterfeiting of their marks and brands simply will not be tolerated.

Examples of our work include:

• Southern District of New York, representing national sports entertainment company (WWE) in nationwide copyright and trademark enforcement action, obtained emergency ex parte seizure order and oversaw on-site seizure and impoundment activity;
  
  
• Western District of North Carolina, representing national sports association and sanctioning body in nationwide copyright and trademark enforcement action, obtained emergency seizure order and oversaw on-site seizure and impoundment activity;
  
  
• Middle District of Florida, representing national sports associations in nationwide copyright and trademark enforcement action, obtained emergency relief and oversaw on-site seizure and impoundment activity;
  
  
• Northern District of Alabama, representing national sports association in copyright and trademark infringement litigation, obtained permanent injunction and money damages for client;
  
  
• Northern District of Illinois, representing national sports entertainment company (WWE) in copyright and trademark infringement litigation, obtained permanent injunction and money damages for client;
  
  
• District of Massachusetts, representing national sports entertainment company (WWE) in nationwide copyright and trademark enforcement action, obtained emergency relief and oversaw on-site seizure and impoundment activity;
  
  
• Central District of California, representing national sports league (XFL) in nationwide copyright and trademark enforcement action, obtained emergency relief and oversaw on-site seizure and impoundment activity; and
  
  
• Eastern District of Michigan, representing national sports association (NASCAR) in nationwide copyright and trademark enforcement action, obtained emergency relief and oversaw on-site seizure and impoundment activity.

Litigation & Dispute Resolution
We have a very experienced sports litigation and dispute resolution practice advising on a wide variety of disputes in the sports sector, including media and broadcasting disputes, commercial rights disputes, sponsorship, merchandising, hospitality insurance coverage intellectual property, image rights, defamation, doping matters and personal injury matters.  We have counseled and advised:

• On behalf of WWE, virtually every kind of dispute, including wrongful death claims, defamation claims, trademark and copyright disputes, sexual harassment claims and contractual claims.  On the intellectual property front, we have focused on maximizing protection for the characters and personas created by WWE under trademark law and copyright law.  In the area of defamation, we obtained a multi-million dollar settlement against an on-profit media watchdog outfit and successfully defended against defamation cases.
  
  
• Ryder Cup Limited particularly on the consequences of the postponement of the 34th Ryder Cup matches in 2001 due to the terrorist atrocities of 11 September 2001 and their successful re-staging in 2002;
  
  
• Thousands of contracts underlie a major sporting event such as the Ryder Cup.  For example, ticket holders, hospitality customers, sponsors, hotels and travel packages customers and travel agents all had to be dealt with.  A plethora of issues arose as to whether Ryder Cup Limited and/or its contractors and suppliers were able to escape, break or otherwise terminate their contracts, on the grounds of frustration, force majeure and the like.
  
  
• Ryder Cup on disputes with broadcasters over broadcasting of the event;
  
  
• National Greyhound Racing Club, the regulator for greyhound racing in the U.K., on a number of disputes including defending the NGRC against legal challenges made to the disciplinary inquiry decisions; advising in relation to disputes with the sport's promotional body and defamation and employment law matters;
  
  
• PGAET in disputes with promoters and with services providers on an international level;
  
  
• a leading advertising agency on breach of confidence action against the Football Association, the U.K. governing body of soccer, for its misappropriation of a marketing and promotional campaign based around the animation of the “Three Lions” crest;
  
  
• Frank Warren and Sports Network in a variety of disputes with leading boxers;
  
  
• the Utah Jazz basketball team in NBA player arbitration matters;
  
  
• a U.K. Premiership soccer club on disputes with national governing bodies over use of players and on a television dispute relating to media rights to European competition matches;
  
  
• a leading hospitality company in a dispute regarding the provision of hospitality services at a national stadium;
  
  
• a well known soccer club's chairman on a defamation arising from a takeover bid for the club;
  
  
• Wasps Rugby Club on a valuation dispute arising from the sale of their former club house and ground when rugby union turned professional, and successfully recovering losses from the valuers at trial;
  
  
• U.S. televised football league on the protection, counseling, enforcement and defense of its entertainment properties
  
  
• litigating trade mark issues worldwide for NBA;
  
  
• on disputes regarding the use of copyright, trade marks, ideas, rights of publicity, music and other properties for;
  
  
• on a dispute over the right of a networked air programming;
  
  
• on the contours of the use of trade marks and copyrights and defamation;
  
  
• on the contours of parody and trade mark and copyright rights;
  
  
• on the contours between First Amendment rights and copyright and trade dress rights in the U.S.;
  
  
• regarding the ongoing right to use marks, copyrights and publicity rights in video tapes; and
  
  
• multiple cutting edge disputes over the protection of characters through copyright, trade dress and trade mark theories in the U.S.

Finance
The banking specialists in our Sports Group have wide-ranging experience of relevant financing packages, including the securing of rights fees and other income streams by taking security/cover, bank guarantees, standby letters of credit and performance and completion guarantees.

We have also counseled and advised on various asset back lending schemes to sports clubs and governing bodies including:

• lending to European football clubs for the transfer of players;
  
  
• Singer & Friedlander, an investment bank in the U.K., on its” transflo” funding scheme, which provides sophisticated and specialized lending for transfers of soccer players between clubs; and
  
  
• an investment bank on a proposed securitization of revenues from a pool of leading professional soccer clubs in England.

Stadium Construction and Infrastructure
Members of our team including those with much experience of major construction and infrastructure projects have counseled, advised and litigated for clients on matters relating to venues for sports events including:

• the design and build contractor for the Commonwealth Games 2002 Stadium in Manchester, England;
  
  
• ground sharing arrangements between leading rugby clubs and leading soccer clubs in England;
  
  
• securing for our client Wasps Rugby Club what the press heralded as one of the largest multi-million pound judgments in favor of such a club arising out of a negligent valuation of the Wasps stadium.