AFC steps up fight against Intellectual Property theft

Press Release

20th February 2019

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is increasing its determination to fight Intellectual Property (IP) theft by appointing experts to continue to protect AFC’s broadcast and commercial partners rights.

In recent months, the AFC has acted as part of a coalition against the pirate broadcasters "beoutQ" and against those who attempted to "ambush" marketing rights at the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 held last month.

Now to further strengthen the AFC’s stance against IP theft, the Confederation is to engage market leaders in this field with a view to further combatting the escalating risk.

Dato’ Windsor John, the AFC General Secretary, said: “The AFC values its broadcast and commercial partners and wishes to do everything that it can to protect their rights, so we see this as a logical next step.

“In recent months, the AFC has been involved in a coalition of leading international rights holders, such as FIFA and UEFA as well as some of the top Leagues in the world – particularly in the battle over broadcast rights in the MENA region.

“But the question of IP theft runs much wider than just MENA and the AFC prides itself on best practices and good governance and now we are beginning the process of obtaining expert advice on what measures we can take to ensure we remain as leaders in this area.”

The AFC has already identified some key experts in the protection of IP but will continue to search to ensure that the advice it receives is of the highest possible quality.

Wednesday, 20 February 2019