⚽🏀🏈🎾 The focus this year is on how intellectual property drives the sports industry—from protecting team logos and merchandise through trademarks, to safeguarding innovative equipment with patents, to ensuring fair use of broadcast rights and copyright. It’s about showing that IP isn’t just legal jargon—it’s the backbone of the global sports economy, fuelling creativity, competition, and commercial success.

For Eswatini and the region, this theme is particularly powerful:

• Local sports brands can leverage trademarks to build recognition.
• Innovators designing new gear or training technologies can use patents to secure their ideas.
• Cultural expressions in sports—chants, songs, traditional games—connect directly to copyright and traditional knowledge protection.

It’s a chance to highlight how IP can empower athletes, communities, and innovators while also protecting heritage.