When it comes to your creativity and talent, you have certain rights. Every year the Technology Transfer and Innovation Support (TTIS) Office at the North-West University (NWU) celebrates World Intellectual Property Day, and this year on 13 May was no different.

Under the banner of “Going for Gold – IP and Sport”, the High Performance Institute at the campus in Potchefstroom showcased why the intellectual property rights of our sport stars and coaches are as important as their academic brethren’s.

“On this day we celebrate and recognise intellectual property to make people aware of intellectual property rights,” explains Ketlareng Polori, a senior specialist in commercialisation at the TTIS office. “We have a different theme every year and this year it revolved around intellectual property in sport.”

Intellectual property encompasses elements such as trade secrets, trademarks, copyright and patents. It is no different with sport. One of the focusses regarding intellectual property in sport is personality rights.

“It is about making sure our athletes’ personality rights aren’t abused. Think about Cristiano Ronaldo. You are not allowed to misuse his personality rights without his consent and the same goes for our athletes,” says Ketlareng.

Further examples include the design of training equipment and the copyright of training manuals and books. Ketlareng cites javelin coach Terseus Liebenberg’s book Science and Practice of the Javelin Throw: The Definitive Visual Guide as an example.

According to Ketlarengthe purpose of the TTIS-office is to manage the university’s intellectual property. “We identify what can be protected and what not.”

The university currently has 320 registered patents.