It's more than just a game: in e-sports, highly paid individual athletes and clans (teams) compete for international titles and sponsorship money - it’s an industry worth billions.
A young Oppenhoff team with a (private) gaming licence advises various players in this industry on all relevant legal issues, such as:
- Are organisers of e-sports events allowed to duplicate the programs?
- Is it unproblematic to use algorithms to detect cheat software?
- What counts as an e-athlete’s place of work? And what should be considered from the labour law perspective when it comes to transfers?
- How are entry and prize money taxed?
- What legal form should e-sports organisations and clans choose?
The initiative was launched by Caterina Hanke. In addition to Caterina Hanke, the team includes Nicholas Degen (both Litigation and Arbitration/Intellectual Property), Dr. Fee Mäder (Intellectual Property), Malte Menken (Corporate/M&A), Martin-Oliver Nonnast (Tax), Christian Saßenbach (IT Law and Data Protection), Dr. Alexander Willemsen (Labour Law) and Edder Cifuentes (Corporate/M&A, Latin America Desk).
They advise streaming platforms, publishers, event organisers, sponsors, teams and management and sports agencies - most recently, among others, Rush Entertainment AG on trademark issues in connection with the launch of the RUSH.GG platform.
More information and tips on this topic will be available here soon. Wait and see - or as gamers would say: HF (have fun)!
Our attorneys in the individual practice areas have already published the following articles on e-sports:
