Professional sports events have long been the focus of public attention and topical topics. However, as the quality of life of the population continues to rise and the demand for public participation in sport becomes more diverse, the development of amateur sports has opened up unprecedented opportunities. The successful “breathing circle” municipal football tournament in jiangsu province in 2025 (hereinafter referred to as “succeleros”) was a very representative microcosm of this trend. Since the opening of the may 2025 competition, sioux super has rapidly attracted widespread attention throughout the province and throughout the country. The number of live viewers has been rising in tandem with the heat of online transmission. As of 7 july, more than 20 billion stories have been broadcast on the theme “sioux super” alone, demonstrating the great potential of mass sports events in terms of cultural influence and economic driving effects. However, in comparison with professional sports events, mass sports events are somewhat short-set in terms of intellectual property protection and operating systems and, in the absence of forward-looking layouts and institutional safeguards, tend to be prone to such issues as trademarks, copyright infringement, brand abuse and disruption of business order, which affect long-term development. At the same time, the operation of intellectual property rights for mass sporting events should be coordinated with their developmental orientation, and strategies should not completely replicate the model of professional sporting events and detract from their value-sharing objectives。
This paper is based on a study of the problems and lessons learned in the operation of intellectual property rights at large mass sports events, represented by su-chai, in conjunction with domestic and international judicial practice and similar cases, and provides a theoretical reference for the continued high quality of popular and amateur sports。
Problems and challenges
Overall, there is a marked lag in the construction of the “sioux super” intellectual property system, mainly in terms of lower risks in the area of copyright, while in the area of trademarks, risks are significantly higher, creating an uneven pattern. Although currently the chinese network of judicatures and mainstream media have not disclosed intellectual property disputes directly related to sioux super, deficiencies in the original intellectual property layout are becoming increasingly visible as the heat of the competition continues to rise. In terms of trademarks, the competition operator jiangsu province sports competition ltd., which already holds more than a dozen registered trademarks, failed to cover the core logo of “sioux super”, and its application for the sixth category of “sioux super league” in the early years was rejected because of its similar composition to the “scot football super league” (known as “sioux super”). At the same time, third parties have successfully registered “sioux super football” in category 41 and new applications related to “sioux super” have continued to grow, covering a number of categories, most of which are non-sport operators. As a result, the lack of a clear and well-established rights base for the “supra” core logo not only increases potential conflict of laws and the cost of defending rights, but also creates structural constraints on future brand-building and commercial development. It is worth noting that a similar situation exists in the “village super” competition, where a large number of businesses and individuals have already taken up the relevant trademarks in the categories of sports events, food, clothing, etc., and that some applications are manifestly malicious and may interfere with their brand image and normal business operations。
At the institutional level, the protection of intellectual property rights in mass sports events, such as the “sioux super” “village super” under the current legal framework, is significantly weaker than in large, integrated professional events, such as the olympic games and the whole games. On the one hand, the lack of specific administrative regulations in the current legal system, similar to the olympic signs protection ordinance, to support amateur events and the failure to apply intellectual property protection provisions established by local governments for professional events, leads to a lack of integrated and coordinated enforcement mechanisms; on the other hand, the organizers or operators often fail to pre-empt sexual rights layouts in the early stages of the competition, and the lack of systematic protection of the names, symbols, mascots, slogans, domain names, etc., of the competitions, leading to rights being lost or difficult to claim when their visibility increases. In recent years, despite the fact that judicial practice has confirmed the audio-visual nature of the live broadcast of sports events and the fact that the protection of audio-visual information about events has been further strengthened by the law of the people's republic of china on sport, as amended in 2022, the intellectual property rights of events have much more to do with this. Since popular events have not yet been regulated by specific laws, there is an urgent need to build a path of intellectual property protection that is consistent with their actual characteristics, and to establish a full-cycle mechanism for guaranteeing rights that is compatible with the development of the competition through legislative improvements, policy support and the initiative of operators。
Experience and revelation
Against the backdrop of inadequate institutional protection and the apparent weakness of the commercial market's value relative to professional football events, the “village super” has effectively plowed significant spillover effects through open copyright strategies and multi-platform content distribution mechanisms, presenting a different operating paradigm from professional events. As far as dissemination mechanisms are concerned, the “siopha” did not follow the “exclusive permit” mode, which is common in professional events, but instead opened access to more than 30 platforms for live broadcasting of events, and installed nearly 100 outdoor “second-site” screens in jiangsudo, greatly improving accessibility, accessibility and inclusiveness. In the case of secondary dissemination, the operator has also not resorted to severe restrictions. According to the nanjing daily newspaper, about seven of the topics on the short video platform, "su super" have become spontaneous, second-time creations by internet users, mainly with a tasteful tone and a famous clipping of events, creating an easy and interesting online atmosphere that has been effective in stimulating popular participation and creativity. Village super also uses highly open transmission routes: in 2023, over 50 million people were seen on the line, with the dissemination of content focusing on national culture and the countryside, and successful cultural outreach. In terms of dissemination results, the sioux super has generated nearly 40 billion yuan in related consumption over a six-month period and nearly 20 billion yuan in combined tourism revenues for the zhongjiang county over two years, showing a model for the dissemination of amateur sports with a web platform at its core and open participation orientation, which is clearly more consistent with the growth path and audience base of mass sports events。
The above experience shows that, for amateur or mass sporting events, the core objectives of copyright operations should not be limited to traditional “exclusive licensing-recycling”, but should focus on expanding social influence, extending the communication chain and promoting the development of the cultural industry and stimulating local economic development. In particular, the practice of the “village super” provides a useful path for similar events in the future: firstly, an open copyright mechanism based on the principle of “signature retention, free dissemination, non-profit qualification” could be explored, allowing for the rational use and re-creation of photographs, video clips and official material for the competition, thereby stimulating community participation and cultural identity; secondly, it should avoid introducing, in the early stages of the competition, a culture of exclusive transmission that is common to professional events, so as to avoid reducing audience size and community adhesion; once again, the ecology of the event could be disseminated through a combination of open, sustainable and wide-ranging events through the establishment of a low-threshold perception mechanism (such as a low-priced and more equitable ticket purchase system), the introduction of a multi-platform synchronized dissemination model, and the introduction of a “co-in stimulus plan for the dissemination of the competition” to encourage broad-based content creators, young users, using new media tools as short video, virtual reality。
Recommendations and responses
First, the law should distinguish between bona fide registration and malicious pretence in cases where the relevant markings in the current “supra” “village super” event have been taken by third parties. Registration in good faith may be settled first and foremost by negotiation, acquisition or transfer; in the case of manifestly malicious acts of apostasy, the application for challenge, avoidance of declaration, revocation of proceedings or civil action under the law of the people's republic of china on anti-improper competition shall be actively initiated under the law of the people's republic of china on trademarks in order to preserve the overall rights and interests and brand image of the event. At the same time, the organizers of the competition should include the names, portraits and characteristic movements of athletes in the protection of intellectual property rights, establish a system of normative authorization and distribution of proceeds, ensure the effective protection of the rights and interests of athletes in their personal image and promote their proper use in commercial communications。
Second, in order to guard against disputes over the ownership of trademarks in competitions such as the “village super” and so forth, the organizers of other popular competitions should, at the preparatory stage, systematize the status of their rights with regard to the core identification elements, such as the name of the event, the name of the game, the name of the team, the slogan of the slogan, and identify their intellectual property rights, as well as establish the path of classification protection, complete the registration of trademarks and copyrights as soon as possible and establish a sound intellectual property rights base. This is not only a clear requirement for the organizers of sports events under the act, but also a fundamental guarantee for their long-term development. Where conditions permit, a unified intellectual property management platform should be established to centralize the registration, authorization, conflict search, contract filing, etc. Of rights related to trademarks, copyrights, etc., and to avoid legal risks and operational obstacles arising from such issues as duplicate registration, unauthorized authorization or lack of ownership. It is worth noting that the relevant departments have focused on the achievements and challenges of events such as the “susie” “village super” and that in the future consideration could be given to developing joint multisectoral policies to promote the economic and legal development of the competition and to guarantee the healthy development of more amateur sports。
Finally, the sustainable development of amateur sports depends on a well-developed revenue-sharing mechanism, and it is proposed to establish a special mass sports development fund. This model has proved to be more active extraterritorially, for example, through the long-term implementation of income distribution mechanisms, including solidarity payments, in the english football super league, which spends part of its broadcast and business revenues on supporting football clubs and grass-roots football projects at other levels of the england football league. The country's mass sporting events may also take into account the time when they are ripe to draw proportional funds from commercial revenues such as trademark authorizations, derivative licences and joint development, to support grass-roots events, infrastructure development and youth sports training, to build a virtuous financial cycle and public feedback mechanism and to promote the healthy development of mass sports。
(by the humanities institute of the chinese university of mining and the institute of public administration of the chinese university of mines)
