Like any business, esports businesses must protect their various forms of intellectual property (“IP”). IP can be valuable. Indeed, with some esports businesses, the largest component of their business valuation is their IP, including trademarks, copyrights, patent rights, domain name registrations, and trade secrets. IP can also include various assignments, licenses, and other permission-granting contractual agreements. For example, if your esports business has a licensing agreement for the use of a sports celebrity’s likeness, that can be very valuable for purposes of financing, attracting investors, and mergers and acquisitions. To help manage, protect, and expand your esports IP, you need the legal assistance and experience of esports intellectual property lawyers like the ones at Revision Legal.

Protecting Trademarks, Brands, and Copyrights Through Registration

Trademarks and brands are probably the most important IP that an esports business creates. A trademark is any name, phrase, logo, design, or mark that identifies your business as the commercial source of products and/or services. Registration of your trademarks is crucial to maximizing the legal protection provided for those trademarks and brands. Your business can protect those from infringement by others. Further, potential investors, financiers, and buyers for your business will expect that you will have protected your trademarks through registration. Excellent esports IP lawyers can help with the registration process at the federal level and the state level and can help extend your trademark protections internationally.

The same is true for any copyrightable original works of authorship that have been created by your business. Indeed, under the federal Copyright Act, you cannot sue for copyright infringement in federal court until your copyrights have been registered. Again, excellent IP lawyers can help with this process. Revision Legal also has the skills, staffing, and resources to prosecute and defend IP litigation.

Protecting Trade Secrets

Trade secrets are also an important IP that is valuable to your business. Trade secrets are any sort of information, data, method, etc., that helps your business remain competitive by virtue of the fact that the information is secret. To be legally protected, an esports business must take legally required steps to protect the secrecy of the information. This includes reasonable steps under the circumstances to maintain the secrecy of the information. Steps include requiring vendors, suppliers, employees, investors, etc., to sign solid and enforceable non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Other steps are generally required too. Again, excellent IP lawyers can help protect your trade secrets.

Obtaining and Protecting Domain Names

Domain names are another essential IP for esports businesses that must be protected. While trademark law provides some protection from cybercrimes like domain name theft, cybersquatting, and typosquatting, there are more specific methods of protection provided through rules and procedures established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) which is the nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating maintenance and procedures for domain name registration and ownership. Skilled esports IP lawyers can help protect your domain names and can provide assistance with various forms of cybersecurity.

Contact the Esports Intellectual Property Attorneys at Revision Legal

For more information, contact the experienced Esports Intellectual Property Lawyers at Revision Legal. You can contact us through the form on this page or call (855) 473-8474.

Esports-Specific IP Challenges: Likeness Rights, Streaming, and In-Game Assets

The esports industry presents IP issues that do not arise in traditional sports or entertainment. Three areas require particular attention from esports IP lawyers:

Player likeness rights. In traditional sports, athlete name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights are governed by collective bargaining agreements, state right-of-publicity statutes, and endorsement contracts. In esports, no industry-wide collective bargaining framework exists. Under most state right-of-publicity statutes — including California’s (Cal. Civ. Code § 3344) and New York’s (N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 50–51) — using a professional esports player’s name, photograph, or likeness for commercial purposes without consent is actionable. Esports organizations must ensure player contracts include NIL grants broad enough to cover the organization’s sponsorship, broadcasting, and merchandise activities.

Streaming and broadcasting rights. Esports content is primarily distributed through streaming platforms — Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and others. The IP rights framework is layered: the game publisher typically retains copyright in the underlying game, the esports organization may have a separate broadcasting license, and the streaming platform has its own terms of service governing monetization. Esports IP lawyers must analyze all three layers to advise on what content rights the organization actually holds.

In-game assets and NFTs. Game publishers generally take the position that all in-game assets are licensed, not sold, to players, and that the license is personal and non-transferable. Players and organizations that have acquired significant inventories of in-game assets must understand the limitations of those licenses, particularly when seeking to monetize through trading, tournaments, or NFT issuance.

Trademark Registration Strategy for Esports Organizations

For esports organizations, the trademark portfolio typically includes the team name, team logo, individual player handles or aliases, and the names of specific esports division titles. Each element is separately registrable and requires a separate trademark application. Key registration classes include:

• Class 9: Electronic publications, downloadable content, gaming software
• Class 25: Clothing and apparel — jerseys, merchandise
• Class 28: Video games, gaming equipment
• Class 35: Advertising services, e-commerce retail, team management services
• Class 41: Entertainment services, esports competition services, streaming services

Esports team names and player handles are particularly vulnerable to cybersquatting — registration of domain names corresponding to well-known esports brands by third parties seeking to profit from the brand’s goodwill. ICANN’s UDRP is the most cost-effective remedy for recovering cybersquatted domain names without litigation. Revision Legal has experience with UDRP proceedings and can initiate a complaint within days of identifying a cybersquatted domain.

Contract Structures in Esports: Player Agreements, Sponsorship, and Publisher Licenses

The contractual relationships in the esports ecosystem are complex. Player agreements should be carefully reviewed to ensure that NIL grants are appropriately scoped, that revenue sharing from streaming and prize money is clearly defined, that termination provisions are balanced, and that post-employment restrictions are reasonable. Sponsorship agreements require careful attention to exclusivity provisions, activation requirements, and termination for cause provisions.

Publisher licenses — which govern an esports organization’s right to operate a team in a game’s competitive ecosystem — can include provisions restricting the organization’s ability to operate in competing titles, transfer franchise slots, or exit the competitive ecosystem. These provisions have significant strategic implications and should be reviewed by experienced esports IP counsel before execution. Contact Revision Legal’s esports IP attorneys at (855) 473-8474.