On 26 March 2014, the government introduced the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Bill into Parliament.
The Bill is designed to prevent unauthorised parties from using, in a commercial manner, certain indicia and images associated with three major sporting events to be held in Australia (the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup 2015, the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup 2015 and the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games) in the lead up, during, and immediately after the events. The Bill also provides organising committees with a more secure environment in which to raise revenue and prevent ambush marketing.
A full list of protected indicia may be found here. However, it is worth noting that even seemingly innocuous indicia such as “Asian Cup city” or “Cricket World Cup travel” are indicia for which the Bill seeks protection.
If an unauthorised person is found to have used protected indicia, remedies include the seizure of offending goods, injunctions to prevent further selling or promotion of offending goods, damages to be paid on any sales of offending goods and being forced to publish a corrective advertisement stating that the person engaged in action contrary to the Bill. Therefore, any party that is not an official partner of the events, but tries to associate itself with one of the events must tread very carefully if it is to avoid breaching the Bill once it passes into law.