INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(269876, 26069, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"973\" height=\"205\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
(269877, 26069, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1239\" height=\"261\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
(269878, 26069, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(269879, 26069, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7955&amp;action=edit');
INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(269880, 26069, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1239\" height=\"261\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"973\" height=\"205\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
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INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(269926, 26073, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1030\" height=\"217\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
(269927, 26073, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"973\" height=\"205\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
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(269929, 26073, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7955&amp;action=edit');
INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(269930, 26073, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"973\" height=\"205\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1030\" height=\"217\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
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INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(269976, 26077, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1096\" height=\"231\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
(269977, 26077, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1030\" height=\"217\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
(269978, 26077, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(269979, 26077, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7955&amp;action=edit');
INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(269980, 26077, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1030\" height=\"217\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1096\" height=\"231\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
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(270015, 26080, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1143\" height=\"241\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>');
INSERT INTO `tm_wsal_metadata` (`id`, `occurrence_id`, `name`, `value`) VALUES
(270016, 26080, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1096\" height=\"231\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
(270017, 26080, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(270018, 26080, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7955&amp;action=edit'),
(270019, 26080, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1096\" height=\"231\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-8033 \" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_528891766-348x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"868\" />With Expo 2020 on the horizon, businesses are marshalling their resources, skills and expertise to ensure that their participation in this universal exposition reaps the benefits sought. Preparations are well underway with entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates, from across the globe, working ceaselessly to host and make their events at Expo 2020 a success story. Yet in their haste to join in on all the action, some businesses, big and small, may be overlooking a fundamental corner stone in their event planning and preparations. The cost of this oversight can undermine a business’s effort, hard work and financial expenditures and compromise key assets of their organisation - even before launch. How can this be?</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>The Goals, Shortfalls &amp; Missing the IP Point</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Like any other activity, businesses want their event to be prosperous, successful and most importantly profitable. Businesses will want their event at Expo 2020 to generate publicity to promote their products, identify new market opportunities and attain/maintain sustainable growth in their sectors. To achieve those goals, businesses will want to host an event that is unique, leading and, hopefully, innovative. This is where intellectual property (IP) comes into context. Whether their event entails—the launch of a new product, a new solution to an existing problem or the introduction of the business itself—the event must stand out. For the event to be all that and more, the business must invest the time and effort in the creation, and more importantly, the protection of the IP that goes into planning, preparing and executing a project. This, in turn, is where some businesses fall short, and end up asking themselves what went wrong and dealing with the consequences.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Businesses sometimes fail to recognise the value of the intellectual effort, creative ideas, concepts, designs, branding and formatting they put into planning and hosting their events. Although indispensable, daily operational concerns should not compromise strategic planning. While sometimes abstract, intangible and therefore difficult to recognise, some elements of strategic planning are legally protectable in the form of IP. A failure to identify and protect relevant IP created as part of the event can cause adverse consequences, which can be costly to an event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>IP Comprehension</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">To understand the underlying causes for potential mishaps, understanding what constitutes IP is necessary. So, what is IP all about? To help answer this, the following quote from an article, the author wrote for the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre last year, is useful: \"IP represents the value of hard work, of creation and what the future might be. It’s the culmination of a thought and effort based development of something entirely new. It also represents vast fortunes that have been made by other people because clever people failed to protect what they own.\" The preceding statement about IP ought to be a universal constant to all businesses. It applies unchangingly to any activity – especially so for event planning and hosting. IP in short can cover every unique aspect of an event, from concept, theme, design, decoration, artwork, animation, branding, whatever products the event intends to launch, to the entire event itself. Therefore, safeguarding relevant IP is vitally important to the success of an event. Without securing that IP, an event will be prone to several risks. In the next paragraphs, we will identify risks an event may face and go over a checklist of some of the most important safeguards.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Some IP Safeguards</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Copyright to the Event Concept</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The first building block of the intellectual effort that goes into planning an event, is the idea. Under IP law an idea cannot be protected so long as it remains unexpressed. Arguably, the verbal expression of that idea/concept ought to be subject to IP protection if the idea/concept is novel. However, quite often, proving that an event idea belongs to an individual or entity may be quite difficult. In absence of witnesses, idea theft, especially in the event planning and hosting business, is unfortunately quite common and goes unchecked/unpunished. Idea theft as such is the first pitfall to avoid.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Accordingly, recording an idea/concept in written form in absence of others would be one safeguard to resort to in planning for the event and avoiding idea theft. This recording secures your copyright to claim authorship to the written work, thus preventing others from taking credit for that work. If the idea is a novel one, then the event plan/concept would be more valuable and the IP in it would require forms of protection, which are stronger than copyright (more on this below).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Maintaining Secrecy</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Parallel to the copyright, planning for the development and disclosure of the event plan/concept to others is a key consideration. In this respect, one important safeguard to consider is that relating to secrecy. Try to treat everything about the event, before its launch, as a trade secret. Avoid the pitfalls accompanying premature publicity, press leakage and dissemination on social media channels. These can devalue your event at a very early stage by for example sabotaging planned surprises/novelties which would have best remained a secret. Even if certain aspects may come as no surprise as they are already known or the concept lacks innovation or is not creative enough, maintaining secrecy at this early stage is paramount as very few will know how the event planning may unfold in reality. As innovations may come about at any later stage (concept development, form and formatting, lay outs and designs, etc.), secrecy helps to protect the IP right to the entire process from the onset. Although, the UAE has yet to enact a federal trade secret law, many provisions exist in several UAE laws (the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Patent &amp; Designs Law (specifically the know-how provisions), the Cyber-Crime Law, the Labour Law and the Electronic Transactions Law). If you maintain secrecy, then these laws can help protect your secret from unauthorised forms of disclosure.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8103\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1143\" height=\"241\" />So how do you maintain secrecy? One obvious way is to keep the secret safely hidden and use all electronic and physical means available to safeguard it. Next, you must ensure that everyone who needs to know about the event plan/concept signs appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing the event to them. The NDAs should not only require recipients of the information to keep whatever they hear and see a secret but they also require them not to use that secret to their own benefit or the benefit of others. To this end, the NDAs must be suitable for the purposes of the disclosure as well as for what is being disclosed – in this case an event concept/plan. Seeking legal counsel on drafting an appropriate NDA at this point would be quite helpful and prudent. Without having proper NDAs in place, enforcing your rights to a trade secret under UAE law will be quite difficult. As an event planner, you will therefore want to avoid this shortcoming at all costs.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">As a further safety measure to maintain secrecy, before disclosing the event plan/concept, by way of a pitch or presentation for example, consider dividing and phasing out the disclosure. If you split up the pitch or presentation into smaller ones (if possible or practical) so that no one audience has, the entire picture of the event, you maintain secrecy and control over the information. For that purpose, you may want to consider dividing your event management into smaller teams and assigning different individual tasks to each of them so that they become part of the process but lack the oversight to the entire process. On this point, from a corporate perspective, the only person with complete oversight and control may be the business executive. As such, to safeguard a company’s interests, that person must also be bound by a robust agreement that requires them to not only acknowledge the company’s right to maintain secrecy but also refrain from using that secret to compete with the company at a later date.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Determining &amp; Clearing Novelty</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Another important safeguard to consider is that of novelty. If certain aspects of your event plan/concept seem innovative then seek a patent lawyer’s counsel on filing a patent application before doing anything else – even signing the NDAs in some cases. Under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, disclosing a secret innovation before filing for patent and/or design protection may cause you to lose the claim to the patent or design right in question. If innovations unfold at later stages and/or the signed NDAs are sufficient for the time being, then consider filing for a provisional patent under the UAE Patent &amp; Designs Law, shortly before or at the very latest, the time of Expo 2020. Here as well, a patent lawyer’s input on such a filing is essential as further discussed below in the IP ownership section. Failing to pay attention to novelty may be a significant drawback to legally protecting your event from an IP perspective and may therefore result in losses.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In tandem with novelty (and even before filing any IP applications), one must also consider prior IP clearance searches. Though the event may appear to be leading and creative/innovative, you can never be certain that none of its components match or are confusingly similar to those of other works belonging to third parties. If the event is not innovative, then all the more reason for the prior IP clearance searches. Again, the involvement of an IP attorney at this stage is crucial. An attorney will be able to advise you what searches are necessary to ascertain if you are infringing anyone else’s existing IP rights to some or all aspects of your event concept. Clearing the IP rights to every component, based on the search results, will minimise the risk of an IP infringement claim that would cripple your event further down the road. Failing to conduct thorough clearance searches has been the shortfall of even large international corporate entities. Nike’s failed ‘LNDR’ ad campaign in the United Kingdom is a case in point. Because the right to the brand LNDR remained unclear, the prior registered owner of the brand successfully prevented Nike from using it. As a result, Nike had to scrap its ad campaign and with it any planned events for launching its new products, incurring substantial costs in the process (estimated at £10 million).</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>IP Ownership &amp; Registration</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">If the IP rights are clear then one more very important safeguard is that relating to IP ownership. As the owner of a business that is overseeing and managing the event concept development and planning, you will want to secure all IP rights in favour of your company. This means everyone involved in the event preparations, from brand development to theme and concept creation to planning and executing, must assign their IP rights to the company. Everyone must also provide IP waivers where necessary to the company. Seeking such protections should apply, without exception, to serve the best interests of the company. Vesting all IP rights in the company minimises the risk of having those rights dispersed, unidentified and undervalued, especially so if the event is successful. You will want to avoid having former employees, prior experts, consultants and contractors you hired in the course of the event-planning, claim any IP rights against you because they are retaining ownership of those rights.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Additionally, under UAE IP laws, you will want to register your ownership of the IP before anyone else does. Therefore, consider with your IP counsel, filing to register the IP with the UAE Ministry of Economy immediately after or in tandem with having secured all necessary assignment and waivers and securing any domain name rights online as well. Without such registrations, enforcing your IP rights in respect of the event with the UAE authorities will be extremely difficult. Lastly, if the event is a success after its launch, consider at that point assigning all those registered IP rights again to a separate IP holding company to isolate the IP from any liability claims. Again, here, seek an IP counsel’s advice on the suitable corporate vehicle for that purpose.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Documenting and Recording</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">One further safeguard relates to document retention. Best practice dictates every major milestone leading up to the event should be documented and recorded (preferably also audio-visually when possible/feasible), from conception to disclosure, to planning/preparation and to event execution/hosting. Having a record of what transpired during the entire process, what was disclosed, what was agreed, how it was planned and executed and what made the event a success, ensures you accurately capture all the facts on which you would claim your IP rights under UAE law. Such a record will come in handy at later stages for various purposes including but not limited to IP due diligence exercises, IP valuations and evidentiary requirements.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The above checklist of safeguards serves only as a general overview and guidance for what to look out for when planning an event. These safeguards are by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps necessary for determining how best to proceed or in what order to follow them. They also surely do not replace proper legal advice and counsel as much depends on the details of each event and all the variables surrounding the project. Nonetheless, the foregoing checklist is a good starting point to consider the various issues at stake going into the event planning and preparations for Expo 2020.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8034\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_178318904.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3900\" height=\"1357\" />\r\n</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s IP team regularly advises on the full spectrum of IP matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</p>'),
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(270080, 26086, 'PostTitle', 'From Expo 2020 to Asian Cup 2019: Developing a protocol for dealing with Ambush Marketing in the GCC'),
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(270083, 26086, 'PostDate', '2018-08-01 07:34:13'),
(270084, 26086, 'PostUrl', 'http://www.tamimi.com/law-update-articles/from-expo-2020-to-asian-cup-2019-developing-a-protocol-for-dealing-with-ambush-marketing-in-the-gcc/'),
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(270087, 26086, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
(270088, 26086, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" />The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>'),
(270089, 26086, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(270090, 26086, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7956&amp;action=edit'),
(270091, 26086, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" />The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n<em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
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(270137, 26090, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
(270138, 26090, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
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(270141, 26090, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
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(270194, 26095, 'MetaValueNew', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8104\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-02-at-12.41.16-PM-790x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"349\" height=\"670\" />Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />\r\n</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
(270195, 26095, 'MetaValueOld', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
(270196, 26095, 'MetaLink', 'content'),
(270197, 26095, 'EditorLinkPost', 'https://www.tamimi.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7956&amp;action=edit'),
(270198, 26095, 'ReportText', '<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />\r\n&nbsp;<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>|<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8036\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_714698206.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5500\" height=\"1558\" /></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are notable for several things. US Athlete Carl Lewis picked up an amazing 4 gold medals. The particularly 1980s pastime of wind surfing was included as a sport. It was the first time that organisers limited the number of sponsors that could be attached to the Olympic Games, arranging tiers of high value sponsorship and limiting sponsors to one per product category. Commercially, the Games were funded privately, and remains one of the few games to ever make a profit.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">In addition, the 1984 Olympic Games recorded the first acknowledged case of ambush marketing when Kodak, then the world’s most popular film for cameras, lost the right to sponsor the Games to its rival Fuji Film. In retaliation, Kodak sponsored the US broadcast of the Games on NBC, and sponsored the entire US team. The vast majority of viewers of the games believed that Kodak was the sponsor, angering both the IOC and Fuji Film. Since then, organisers of sporting events and large scale commercial events (such as Expo 2020) have been seeking ways to ensure that companies that have no commercial sponsorship rights do not act in a way that leverages off the goodwill of the event in a way that devalues the benefits provided to the actual sponsors of that event.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8104\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-02-at-12.41.16-PM-790x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"349\" height=\"670\" />Types of Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Since the early days of ambush marketing, marketers have become extremely clever at developing ways for non-sponsoring brands to create false links to major events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">They may do this by attempting to create an association with the event itself. A very clever example of this, and one that was successful and remained unchallenged by the organisers because of its simplicity, was the association that Beats by Dr Dre headphones made with the 2012 London Games by providing free headphones to the British athletes.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The other method is ambush by intrusion in this case the brand sends its brand into the stadiums of event locations and exposes it to cameras. Early amateur examples of this saw brands paying people to stand behind goals or near interview subjects with cardboard placards bearing the brand logo, although the levels of sophistication have escalated significantly since then.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Brands sometimes ‘coat-tail’ a marketing association. Whilst not event sponsors, they may sponsor a competitor or provide equipment to a key member of the team. Similar to this they may use distractive ambushing – they may set up a smaller event (such as a concert or DJ event) near the main event to gain traction with fans.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">The Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the rise of a new and more difficult category of ambush marketing – the social ambush, involving the use of hashtags. Hashtags are often extremely opportunistic – happening within minutes of a notable occurrence at the event. For example, when Suarez bit an opponent in the 2014 World Cup, Snickers response was swift and went viral: \"Hey @luis16suarez. Next time you’re hungry just grab a Snickers. #worldcup #luissuarez #EatASNICKERS\". With a staggering 672 million Tweets created for World Cup 2014, and with social media continuing to increase its role in marketing across the board, we can expect this difficult area of ambush marketing to become more prevalent for future events.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Some of these types of ambush marketing are more palatable to event organisers than others. Unfortunately not all are easy to control.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Legal Basis for Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">It has always been difficult for lawyers to find ways to deal with ambush marketing. In some cases, it can be claimed that the marketing campaign is infringing on the IP rights of either the event organiser or possibly even the official sponsor. There may be some assistance from competition laws, where they extend to passing off. Perhaps a little legal relief may be gained from the advertising regulations of the country in question – can it be perhaps argued that the advertising is deceptive in seeking to create a link with the event that does not exist?</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Beyond this, the law becomes increasingly unhelpful.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Historically, the strongest way to deal with ambush marketing was to register a suite of trademarks and, then, using the trademarks legislation to bring action for infringement. However, this is increasingly less helpful as non-sponsoring brands become more adept at using subtle ways to imply a link to the event without the use of the trademarks involved. Clever marketing executives work with clever lawyers, and together they navigate a campaign idea though the many legal gaps.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst some countries may be able to rely on their trade practices or competition laws, these will not be as helpful in the UAE. There are no ‘look and feel’ rights associated with an event, and no laws that say that a company cannot act in a way that compromises contractual rights of a third party. It is possible that the event organiser and the event sponsor would find that, legally, they have few (or no) options in a courtroom.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Because of this common gap in the laws, many countries implement event-specific laws to protect both the organisers and the event sponsors from ambush marketing. For example, for the Russian 2018 World Cup, the Russian government passed Federal Law No. FZ-108 in 2013. This follows the pathway set by past governments seeking to protect large events that are held in their countries – enacting laws designed to provide quick solutions to the problems of ambush marketing. Generally speaking, these laws create new offences relating to the creation of any unauthorised association with the event – for example the Russian law is drafted broadly and captures anything that might falsely suggests that the product has the approval, recommendation, certification by, or connection with FIFA or the World Cup. The laws include heavy fines which can be implemented by the government itself, bypassing the need for any civil case to be launched.</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Without such laws in place well before the start of the event, the event organiser can expect to have a much more difficult time in preventing ambush marketing activities. But it is wise to remember that, even with such laws, an event organiser may struggle to stop an advertiser from, say, using a football game within its advertising during a World Cup, or referencing a world trade exhibition during an Expo.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Reacting to Ambush Marketing</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Any entity with a large event approaching needs to strategise carefully its reaction to ambush marketing. Our suggestions include the following:</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Very large events, such as Expo 2020 or the Asian Cup 2019, must have as much government support as possible in the form of comprehensive and well-crafted legislation to allow a fine to be levied against undesirable activity.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Where press is to be properly authorized for entry to the event, it should be made clear that any form of ambush marketing, even if only carried by that press outlet as advertising, will permit the cancellation of the press badges of all their correspondents.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Come to an understanding with key stakeholders about the scope of ambush marketing – what they will and will not allow. Obviously the key element is to consider whether the ambushing brand is trying to deceive consumers into thinking that they are associated with your event. But you should make sure that you consider the fine points of what association means to each of you. If a brand posts \"We are proud to be part of #Expo2020 this year\" that may be too far from most stakeholders. But what about a post that is less direct and simply reads: \"Congratulations to #mydubai on the opening of #Expo2020\"? Do stakeholders all agree that this is less direct, aimed at creating a link to the trending hashtags as much as the event. Is this worth chasing? It is important to know the position of all stakeholders in advance.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Ensure all key stakeholders are aligned on the actions that will be taken under point 3. For example if the plan for ambush by intrusion is to remove the item that will be creating the ambush inside a venue, it is imperative that all stakeholders are aware of that planned action, from government to broadcaster, from sponsor to security company.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">Plan outcomes early and then develop action plans and template letters to cover all possible types of ambush marketing so that management has approved both the plan and the letters well in advance. Create a Protocol and Action Handbook that all staff from all stakeholders can have on hand so that everyone knows the process, timing, approvals and documents that are to be used. Time cannot be lost in seeking approvals when the event is actually in progress and in addition, a united front will assist all stakeholders to a better (and expected) result.</li>\r\n 	<li dir=\"LTR\">And finally, plan your social media tone and voice carefully and ensure adequate trained resources are available to react quickly to any social ambush.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\">Whilst event sponsors are carefully planning and managing their marketing executions around the next big event, non-sponsor brands are similarly planning strategic and clever ambush marketing campaigns. Event organisers cannot do enough planning to ensure that the reactions taken to such ambush marketing are concise, controlled and consistent – to do anything else could severely compromise the position of their sponsors and affect these important contractual relationships.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8035\" src=\"http://www.tamimi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/shutterstock_549959791.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4500\" height=\"1500\" />\r\n</p>\r\n<p dir=\"LTR\" align=\"LEFT\"><em>Al Tamimi &amp; Company’s TMT team regularly advises on the full spectrum of technology, media and telecommunications matters and provides key support to our Expo 2020 practice group. For further information, please contact expo2020@tamimi.com).</em></p>'),
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