Ambush Marketing- The Concept

Year 2015 is to witnessing ICC cricket World Cup and all of us are enjoying this mammothic event. Reliance , Espn , pepsi co, etc are the official sponsors for this event and they have spent a hefty amount in being one of the sponsors. In the same breeze of enthusiastic atmosphere, ZANDU (not an official sponsor) balm comes with an advertisement stating it to be official balm of players’ relief in world cup. Yes, this is Ambush Marketing. "Ambush marketing" is a term which describes any unauthorized activity which attempts to associate a product, service or business without paying for the privilege. This can be done by running event related promotions, for example, giving away products which will hopefully be featured in press or television coverage; using advertising space in proximity to event grounds or official broadcast spots; and sponsoring individual teams and athletes rather than the event itself. Commercialization of sports magnetizes core IPR issues like Trademark, Copyright, Design, licensing and franchising etc. For now, being a very new terminology “ambush marketing” has no specific legislation in India and this paper serves the same reason to shed light upon ambush marketing and its nexus with IPR protection.