‘Reach for Gold: IP and Sports’
Last month, HBO Latin America Group signed off on five licensing agreements with cable operators to legally provide programming channels. It comes down to the issue of rights. Today, in commemoration of World Intellectual Property Day, the Belize Intellectual Property Office and the National Sports Council who sat to discuss the concept of sports tourism through intellectual property. News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
‘Reach for Gold: IP and Sports’ is the theme for this year’s World Intellectual Property Day. The Belize Intellectual Property Office (BELIPO) in partnership with the National Sports Council gathered stakeholders today to discuss the monetization of sports through patents, trademarks, and other forms on intellectual property.
Tyrone Marcus
Tyrone Marcus, Consultant
“As an athlete and especially as a top level athlete that I have fame, I have goodwill, I have recognition, I have reputation. If I am a top level athlete people want to see me, people will spend money to either watch me play live sports to come in person in the stadium to watch me play. It’s athletes understanding that there is value attached to my sporting performance and value attached to my image and I think that is what a lot of the global stars have been able to understand.”
But in Belize, sport tourism, as it is called, has yet to kick off the ground. With most of the public being influenced by outside sports and athletes, local sport stars may find it challenging to compete with foreign athletes.
Olabimpe Akinkuolie
Olabimpe Akinkuolie, Deputy Registrar, BELIPO
“It’s all about the mentality of it because we have already seen the western world as they offer better qualities of life, better services. We kind of need to change that mentality and bring it here and nurture it from either from a child. We all play a role in how we appreciate our own creativity, our own athletes, our own associations in Belize.”
Sports events are becoming a major driver of economic development globally. In Belize the opportunity now presents itself to generate revenue through sports.
Ian Jones
Ian Jones, Director, National Sports Council
“Everybody in Belize knows that in sports, they say that there is no money in sports. There is money in sports if we understand how. This is on aspect of it and I believe that if the federations are educated on then they could relay that information to their members, to their athletes. It is a seed that you plant today and you will see benefits from in the near future.”
Hipolito Novelo, News Five.
