Ambush Marketing: A Sport of Underdogs

Abstract

The paper commences in a descriptive fashion, succinctly describing the phenomena of “ambush marketing”, the numerous, subtle and obvious practices adopted in such strategic, parasitic marketing, referring to a few past instances here and there. It then goes on to discuss the diverse perspectives and contentions relating to this unauthorized sponsorship or use, while touching upon the legality of such practice. While delineating different laws and rules existing in this domain in different jurisdictions, under the various IP regimes and otherwise as event-specific legislations, the paper analyzes whether such laws are in fact adequate. It also tries to answer whether these event-specific legislations are needed at all, if protection and remedies are available elsewhere, thus trying to answer if this practice necessitates any event-specific legislation or not. The paper then goes on to stress upon the necessity of an anti-ambush marketing legislation in India and attempts to propose a model for the same.