By Mahdi Waziri Isa
A renowned Scholar of Law, Professor Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan, has thrown his weight behind the choice of the intellectual property and sports theme for the 2026 World IP Day, saying it is “apt”, and leveraging the AfCFTA Protocol on IPR and its annexes is essential to monetising African sports content, protecting local innovations, and managing rising digital, media and branding disputes in Africa.
Commenting ahead of the April 26 global commemoration, Professor Ladan, a professor of law and leading expert on intellectual property, said the theme highlights the crucial intersection of IP rights and the commercial future of African sports.
Marking the World IP Day on 26 April 2026 with the theme _“IP and Sports: Ready, Set, Innovate”_, Professor Ladan noted that the theme highlights the crucial intersection of intellectual property and the African sports economy.
He explained that the AfCFTA Protocol on IPR of 2023, with eight new annexes finalized in February 2026, provides the framework for harmonizing fragmented IP systems across Africa. This, he said, is crucial for ensuring sports brands, trademarks, and copyright are protected uniformly across member states, simplifying cross-border sponsorship and licensing.
According to Professor Ladan, the Protocol is also key to digital transformation because it protects digital content, apps, and broadcasting rights. He stated that modern sports revenue is shifting from gate receipts to media and broadcasting rights, with high-value licensing agreements dominating the commercial landscape. The 2026 regulatory regime, he added, treats sporting content as commercially exploitable IP, fueling billion-dollar direct-to-consumer deals and enhancing fan engagement. IP also protects advancements in wearable technology, performance-enhancing gear, and training data, fostering innovation.
Professor Ladan pointed out that the growth of broadcasting and digital distribution has intensified disputes surrounding cross-border licensing and illegal streaming.
He observed that emerging market sports disputes are heavily focusing on arbitration to resolve conflicts related to IP, media rights, and athlete branding. Still, the current fragmented nature of IP laws across the continent creates hurdles for SMEs, creators, and athletes, while the high volume of illegal streaming and digital content theft presents a major barrier to realizing the full economic value of broadcasting rights. Implementing uniform enforcement of IP rights across diverse legal jurisdictions remains a challenge, he said.
On the way forward, Professor Ladan called for accelerated implementation of the AfCFTA IPR Protocol annexes approved in February 2026 to harmonize rules.
He urged strengthening the capacity of IP offices to manage digital IP and trademark registrations related to sports, and developing specialized arbitration mechanisms to handle sports-related IP disputes efficiently.
World IP Day is marked globally on April 26 each year to raise awareness of how intellectual property encourages innovation and creativity.