Summary: Bootleggers, beware. The piracy police kick into high gear this summer.
While soccer fans prepare for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council will kick off its latest thought leadership initiative, “Doing Away With Foul Play in Sports Marketing,” which will examine brand protection challenges and brand-degradation issues resulting from the growing incidence of online trademark trespassing, property rights theft, as well as ticket and merchandise scams in the global sports market. Since January, officials in South Africa have seized nearly $6 million of counterfeit FIFA World Cup and Premier League merchandise.
According to the consulting firm of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the market sector expects to see global revenues of $141 billion by 2012.