Hundreds of millions of dollars in prize money, arenas, corporate sponsors, and college and professional teams, esports are lucrative, popular, and yet largely unknown to many in the legal profession. This CLE provides an overview of competitive video gaming, the challenges, and opportunities in the rapidly growing world of sports, unique IP considerations, and a review of legislative concerns. This CLE also examines the role of an attorney in the esports and professional gaming space including what an esports lawyer does as well as exploring some common intellectual property protections such as copyrights and trademark matters for professional gamers, streamers, esports teams and organizations. It will also explore some common contractual terms included in esports talent and sponsorship agreements, including those entered with professional gamers, streamers, coaches, and casters as well as focuses on foreign visas and work authorization for professional gamers, content creators, coaches, casters, and other individuals. This CLE continues by examining some other related legal issues for the esports space including FTC and social media disclosures, DMCA and music licensing for streaming and content creation as well as emergence of esports federations, associations, and other governing bodies.

Key topics to be discussed:

• What is Esports/What is esports law/what does an esports attorney do
• IP Law in Esports (Copyrights & Trademarks for Esports Talent & Teams)
• Visas/Immigration in Esports
• Key Contractual Terms in Esports Player & Sponsorship/Endorsement Agreements
• FTC (Social Media Disclosures)/DMCA (Music Licensing)

Date / Time: November 2, 2023

Closed-captioning available