NUJS Centre for Sports Law & Policy (CSLP)
The NUJS Centre for Sports Law & Policy (CSLP) is pleased to announce a special lecture on Copyright Protection and its intersection with athletic performance. This session aims to provide its audience with a unique opportunity to understand the intersection of sports and e-sports with copyright law through an analysis of three jurisdictions – the USA, the European Union and India.
Guest Speaker Profile
Sarath Ninan Mathew is a full-time DPhil Researcher in the Law Faculty and a member of St. Hugh’s College, University of Oxford. Sarath completed his Bachelor’s in Law, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences; and his Master’s in Law, LLM in Commercial Laws from the University of Cambridge. Sarath’s doctoral research is at the interface of E-Sports and copyright law. He seeks to understand how US and EU copyright law regulates E-Sports streams, and how the doctrinal position contrasts with the self-regulation presently found in the industry.
About the Session
‘Tennis for Two’ by William Higinboth is widely credited as the first ever videogame. It was developed in 1958. Fourteen years later, the first recorded videogame competition, titled ‘Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics’ was held in Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Today, competitive video gaming has burgeoned into a multi-billion-dollar global esports industry that supports hundreds of thousands of artists and players. Since 2022, esports has been officially recognised as a sport event in India.
In addition to the official tournament broadcasts, the industry supports an independent streaming ecosystem in which players livestream themselves playing. Imagine being able to watch LeBron James playing pick-up games and Mr. James takes you through his thought process as he is playing. Esports fans are routinely afforded this envious experience, with some of the biggest esports athletes running independent channels where they stream their gameplay. Despite the rapid growth of the esports industry, there is as yet no case law directly addressing whether esports athletic performances can constitute copyright-protected works.
This discussion seeks to map out the doctrinal reasons why (and how) copyright laws deny protection to athletic performances. The presentation will provide a brief overview on copyright subsistence requirements in the United States, the European Union, and India; and examine how these requirements apply to conventional sports performances. We will then explore how copyright might apply to esports broadcasts, drawing upon the existing case law on conventional sports.
Learning Objectives
-
Develop a basic understanding of copyright subsistence requirements.
-
Understand the limited case law on copyright application to sports performances.
-
Explore possible doctrinal paths on copyright application to esports performances.
Event Details
⮚ Date: 10 December 2026
⮚ Time: 5:00 P.M. — 6:00 P.M.
⮚ Mode: Online (Google Meet)
⮚ Registration: Free and open to all (students, researchers, young professionals, and enthusiasts)
Benefits of Attending the Webinar
This session offers a rare opportunity to learn directly from one of the most prominent scholars in copyright law and discuss a unique intersection of sports and esports with copyright law. All participants will receive certificates for attending the webinar.
Registration Link
https://forms.gle/v5ubGLnBNUcmrozbA – Kindly note that registration is mandatory for issuing the certificate.
Participation, Attendance & Certification
-
Free Registration (Open to students, researchers, professionals, and anyone interested).
-
Hosted online via Google Meet
-
All participants must register through the Google Form.
-
Participants should attend the full webinar to receive the certificate.