Intellectual property rights and brand protection for the UK’s leading sports broadcasters

We have been instructed for over 20 years by Sky Business in the protection of their branding and Intellectual Property Rights by advising and representing them in both civil and criminal cases for breaches of that IPR in live sports broadcasting ranging from Premier League football through to pay per view world championship boxing.

Sky Business provides Sky’s television, internet and mobile telephone services to businesses in the United Kingdom. Sky Business is the team within Sky, the UK's largest pay-tv broadcaster, that provides services to commercial subscribers throughout the UK. 

Sky had issues with their broadcasts, especially in live sport, being taken by commercial organisations and businesses without seeking authorisation to do so under the relevant commercial contractual terms that Sky offered being entered into. 

We understood that the issues that Sky Business had would have to be remedied by a dual approach, educating the relevant business sectors of the need to have the correct contractual authorisation and to develop the relevant deterrents to those that continued to take Sky’s broadcast without the correct contract having been entered into. We have brought civil actions for breach of copyright and breach of contract and mounting criminal prosecutions under the Fraud Act 2006 and Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to protecting Sky’s Intellectual Property Rights, we have brought over 2000 civil cases for this client.

We have brought civil actions for breach of copyright and breach of contract and instigated criminal prosecutions under the Fraud Act 2006 and Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to protecting Sky’s Intellectual Property Rights.

We have represented Sky in Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC), County Court, Magistrates’ Court, Chancery Division, Crown Court and Administrative Court of the High Court matters having developed a suite of processes that can be utilised in both civil and criminal jurisdictions in protecting the client’s brand, enforcing any breach of Sky’s copyright as well as proactively deterring future breaches.  

Over the 25 years that we have provided legal advice and assistance to Sky Business we have seen the adoption of various technological innovations by those seeking to exploit our clients – form the card sharing technologies of the early noughties to the tens through to the present streaming services offered by third parties to those that do not want to pay for what they receive. 

As a result we have continually reviewed and adapted our approach with Sky accordingly and continued to provide legal protection to them through the courts and cease and desist warnings and educational pieces and the development of injunctions prohibiting businesses form showing Sky broadcasts to the public. 

Russell-Cooke have continually reviewed and adapted our approach with Sky accordingly and continued to provide legal protection to them through the courts and cease and desist warnings and educational pieces and the development of injunctions prohibiting businesses from showing Sky broadcasts to the public.

Russell-Cooke have now been instructed in, for Sky business as well as other broadcasters including BT Sport, Virgin Media, Setanta, and Racing UK in over 3,000 instructions over the past 25 years. In that time we have built a wealth of knowledge and expertise in how to maximise the protection of our clients’ intellectual property rights and brand protection generally.