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10 ESLJ 1 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/entersport10 and id is 1 raw text is: This article examines the strategies utilised by UEFA to protect its 'European Football Championships 2008' brand from intellectual property theft. In order to protect and maximise the value of the brand, UEFA restricted access to its intellectual property to a number of 'Official Partners', and introduced legal and practical strategies to prevent the sale of unofficial merchandise and 'ambush marketing' by other companies. However, despite these strategies, unofficial products were produced in vast numbers and ambush marketing campaigns meant that considerable confusion remained as to which companies were 'official' partners to the tournament. Additionally, conflicts between official UEFA partners and those connected with the competing teams resulted in all parties engaging in ambush marketing activity. This article details the conflicts and also revisits previous theory on ambush marketing. It concludes that rather than pursuing event-specific anti-ambush legislation, event organisers and competitors need to find consensual solutions to prevent disputes and consumer confusion which may reduce the value of commercial rights for sporting mega-events in the future. Sporting Events, Intellectual Property, Counterfeiting, Ambush Marketing This article analyses the strategies utilised at the 2008 UEFA European Football Championships in Austria and 1 Switzerland (Euro2008) to protect the competition's brand and the value of this brand to UEFA's 'official partners.' More specifically, it will investigate the issues of counterfeiting, unofficial merchandise, ambush marketing and the conflicts between the official UEFA-endorsed brands and those of the partners of the teams competing in the tournament. The intention was to assess whether UEFA's strategies were successful in protecting the Euro2008 brand (and the association of this brand with the official partners) from counterfeiters and ambush marketers hoping to gain commercial advantage by 'piggy-backing' on the tournament but without paying a fee to the event organiser. The author used the method of participant observation to assess how spectators and local participants attending 2 matches, official UEFA 'fan zones', and other venues in the host cities, experienced the branding and sponsorship of the event. Observations were carried out amongst football supporters attending the tournament in the host nations and (to a lesser extent) the local participants already resident in the host cities, in five of the eight locations (Geneva, Zurich, Innsbruck, Vienna and Salzburg). However, in such a short period in the field 1

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