Image Rights and Intellectual Property in Sports: A Guide for Kenyan Athletes and Clubs

Image rights and intellectual property in sports intersect at nearly every commercial touchpoint in the sector, from athlete endorsements and club merchandise to broadcast rights, sponsorship and digital content. In Kenya the protection of a sportsperson’s image is assembled from several existing bodies of law rather than found in one statute, so the contracts and registrations a party puts in place carry most of the weight.

Image Rights and Intellectual Property in Sports: A Right Assembled From Other Rights

We are not aware of a standalone statutory right in a sportsperson’s name, image or likeness in force in Kenya. What functions as an image right in practice is assembled from contract law, trade mark law, copyright law and the common law tort of passing off. An athlete’s commercial value in their name and likeness is usually licensed through a contract with a club, brand or event organiser, so a contract that is silent on image rights should not be assumed to transfer them. They should be expressly licensed or assigned.

Where a name, signature or likeness is incorporated into a registered trade mark, the owner gets the enforcement tools of the Trade Marks Act. Where a photograph or recording is involved, copyright is governed by the Copyright Act, under which section 31 provides that copyright vests initially in the author, subject to the exceptions in that section, so the person depicted does not automatically own the image. Unauthorised commercial use that suggests a false endorsement may also be challenged as passing off. The practical consequence is that protection is only as strong as the contracts and registrations actually put in place. A club that wants to use a player’s image in a season ticket campaign needs an image rights clause that says so, rather than relying on implied consent.

Draft Sports Bill, 2026

A draft Sports Bill, 2026 and a National Sports Policy have been presented for stakeholder consultation by the government, and the Kenya News Agency reports that the draft proposals will still go through consultation, parliamentary committee scrutiny and Cabinet. The draft is not law. We have not been able to verify the text of any provision against a primary source, so this guide does not describe specific clauses. Parties negotiating multi-year sponsorship or representation deals should avoid defining image rights purely by reference to the law as it stands today, and should draft so that the contract still makes sense if a statutory right later exists alongside it.

Club and Federation Trademarks

A club or federation’s name, badge and kit design are registrable as trade marks under the Trade Marks Act (Cap 506), administered by the Kenya Industrial Property Institute. The Trade Marks Rules provide for a search request in Form TM 27 (rule 20) and an application for registration in Form TM 2 (rule 21). Registration is class-specific, so merchandise, broadcasting and sponsorship-related goods and services need to be covered. Under section 23 of the Act, registration is for ten years and may be renewed for further periods of ten years.

Opposition is governed by section 21 of the Act and rule 46 of the Rules, which allows any person to give notice of opposition within sixty days from the date of the advertisement of the application in the Journal or Gazette. Enforcement against counterfeit merchandise or unauthorised use is through civil proceedings. For protection outside Kenya, a club or federation will generally need separate regional or national filings, which should be planned with counsel before launching merchandise abroad.

Because section 47(2) of the Sports Act provides that the Registrar shall not register more than one national sports organisation for any one discipline, registering the federation’s own name and badge as trade marks is also a durable way to protect institutional identity against a rival body trading on a similar name.

Broadcast Rights

Broadcasting is the most valuable strand of image rights and intellectual property in sports for many federations.

Under section 22 of the Copyright Act, broadcasts and audio-visual works are eligible for copyright, and a broadcast is not eligible until it has been broadcast. Who may license the rights to a sporting event is something a federation’s constitution, competition rules and contracts should state explicitly before a season starts. Broadcasting agreements should define the licensed territory, the platforms covered, the duration of the rights and the financial terms, including any minimum guarantee and revenue sharing, with enough precision that a dispute over a new streaming platform does not have to be litigated mid-contract.

Anti-Ambush Marketing

Anti-ambush marketing is another area where image rights and intellectual property in sports must be protected by contract. We are not aware of a standalone anti-ambush marketing statute in Kenya. An event organiser protecting an official sponsor’s exclusivity therefore relies on the same patchwork as image rights: contractual restrictions in ticketing, accreditation and venue terms, trade mark enforcement where a rival uses protected marks, and passing off where conduct creates a misleading impression of association with the event.

Frequently asked questions

This article is general information on Kenyan law as at its publication date, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an advocate and client relationship.