Professional Footballers' Image Rights and Civil-Law Instruments in Their Commercialization
Keywords:
Image rights, personal rights of a footballer, commercial license, intellectual property, spin-off company, NFT, Uzbek sports law, foreign experience, civil-law instruments, de lege ferenda.Abstract
T This thesis analyzes the civil-law nature of professional footballers' image rights, the mechanisms of their commercialization, and international practices. Through this comprehensive review, scientifically grounded proposals and conclusions are formulated to improve the legal regulation of this domain within the Republic of Uzbekistan. The paper provides a comparative analysis of the primary regulatory models governing players' image rights across Western nations, specifically England, Spain, and Germany. Furthermore, it explores contemporary commercialization tools based on licensing agreements, spin-off companies, franchising, and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) technologies. In light of the legal reforms implemented in Uzbekistan between 2020 and 2026, de lege ferenda proposals aimed at establishing an institutional framework for image rights are put forward.
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