preamble

this article was drafted a long time ago but today 10/08/2016 i was greeted by news headline at the back page of the Malawian newspaper The Nation newspaper. both news items were write by Garry Chirwa and they were on Nyasa Big Bullets and its relationship with Nyasa manufacturing co. then the following below came to mind;

On the 4th January, 2016 I was greeted by the back page of the Nation Newspaper with a sports article written by Garry Chirwa. The article’s heading broadly headed “BB deals rolls out’. However what attracted my attention was the subheading which read ‘call them Nyasa Big Bullets’.  In a short appraisal of the article it reports that Big Bullets football club has managed to get a five-year sponsorship deal from a tobacco manufacturing company called Nyasa manufacturing Company (NMC) worth 500 million kwacha. This means they will be getting 100 million kwacha per year.  This means BB will be given over 8.3 million Malawi kwacha monthly. These are not small monies thus everyone would jump into signing the dotted lines.

Furthermore, it was reported that Samuel Chilunga, BB Chairperson, and Demo Kalaitzis, Managing Director of NMC, had confirmed the deal and that this was a strategic business partnership. The business partnership entails BB brand adding value through increased sales of NMC products, the branding of BB team’s kit and using the BB players as NMC brand ambassadors just to mention a few. The report was not specific as whether the BB team’s name would change as pointed out in the subheading.

I must add that I am not privy to the actual contract therefore my analysis is based on what I read as reported by the esteemed Garry Chirwa. From the reading of the report there are several things that come out as to this important sports deal for the footballing sector in Malawi. This deal brings to the fore intellectual property (IP) issues that have been created through this deal. The fundamental question is who owns or who will own these intellectual property assets, which have been created. Intellectual property is an aspect of property whose concern is the protection of creations of the mind through the law.

Firstly, it is to do with trade mark. Trade mark as an aspect of IP has been defines by International Trademark Association (INTA) as any word, name, symbol or device (or any combination thereof) that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from that of another. Furthermore, trademarks must be registered in terms of the laws of each country and usually the application procedure and enforcement must be undertaken in terms of the laws each country. I am very much hoping that this trade mark has been registered or soon be registered at our intellectual property office at Registrar General.   This will be imperative because this will surely be a money puller since the team is Big Bullets is a peoples team which a crowd puller hence a money magnet. Therefore I hope the contract between the two entities has answered fundamental questions such as between these two parties who are forming an entity called ‘Nyasa Big Bullets’ who owns or will own this trademark? Or it will be the new entity? What happens when the agreement between the two entities elapses what would happen to ‘Nyasa Big Bullets’ as a trade mark?

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