Haitian Football Federation would benefit for Help in protecting IP

After a 52-year wait, Haiti is headed back to the FIFA world cup. How IP played a role in helping us get there was the central theme of a webinar organized for World IP Day by the Haitian Copyright Office and the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Arbitration.

A representative of the Haitian Football Federation intervened to explain that attracting quality players to play for Haiti requires financing, which cannot happen if IP rights are not protected. He sent a call to all of us present to spread the message that unauthorized uses of IP or player images before and during the world cup prevents the HFF from generating revenue from its success.

Further, he brought up that players’ right of publicity have to be respected, not simply for revenue purposes, but to avoid offending them. For example, a muslim player might oppose a bar using his image to promote a watch party for the world cup. was sent to the Haitian sports, business, and IP communities to respect the FHF’s IP rights.

In short, the better protection of intangible rights, the better the players they will be able to get. Hopefully, this main message will be enough to get Haitian businesses to do the right thing; however, this will be very challenging given that it is unfortunately not common practice in Haiti. Nevertheless, Haiti’s IP community has a role to play to make respect of the HFF’s IP rights a reality.

We plan to host webinars and prepare materials to help spread this message.