Sports take centre stage at World Intellectual Property Day 2019

The World Intellectual Property Day Celebration is a day set aside all over the world to celebrate creators and inventors such as artists, developers, content creators, musicians, actors and producers, among others. It is marked every year on April 26.

The theme for this year’s celebration, which will also be marked in Nigeria, is ‘Reach for Gold: IP and Sports.’ It will hold at the National Stadium Conference Centre, Lagos, and is organised by Friends of the Creators Foundation (FCF), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), National Films and Videos Censors Board (NFVCB), as well as Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC).

The event will feature special recognition and award to some notable Nigerian sports heroes, paper presentation among others.

Foremost sports lawyer, sports writer and founder of Little Tigers Youth Academy, Mr. Amaka Beverley Agbakoba-Onyejianya will be guest speaker and will speak on ‘Intellectual Property Law and Sports Business in Nigeria.’

Speaking about WIPO Day Celebration in Nigeria, Agbakoba-Onyejianya said: “I am honoured to be presenting a paper on ‘Sports Business and IP Law’ in honour of World Intellectual Property Day. It is a great time to be in sports and so much is happening. I call on all sports fans, industry sports people to make this a special celebration of law and sports on World Intellectual Property Day.”

This year’s edition of the WIPO will be the third to be marked consecutively by Friends of the Creator Foundation, which has Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo and Mr. Rockson Igelige as Board of Trustees Chairman and Secretary respectively.

According to Igelige, “This year’s edition of World Intellectual Property Day, which comes up in April 26, 2019, is focusing on how IP laws support and protect the world of sports. A lot of persons in and outside of the sports business are not aware that IP laws protect organisers of sports events, athletes, sports teams, trainers, sports federations, sports broadcasters, sports writers, photographers, manufacturers of sports equipment, corporate sponsors and even sports fans. IP protects several rights of creators and investors. Rights like copyrights, related rights, patents, designs and trademarks are very important and beneficial in the world of sports. This is one reason why this event is very important to all sportsmen and women, sports lovers, investors and the general public.

“During the event, some high profile personalities that have contributed immensely to sports development in Nigeria will be given special recognition and awards. I want to encourage legal practitioners to also attend the event. There is a lot to gain because the field of intellectual property is wider than we think in Nigeria”.

The highlight of the ceremony will be the stage performance of MTN Project Fame winner, Okiemute Ighorodje, she will perform from her latest single titled ‘Wosa.’