On 4 June 2019, Llinks Law Offices partner Mr. David Wu was invited to participate in the conference on "2019 Sports Joy and Sports Health Convention" held at Beijing International Convention Center. The convention was divided into two theme forums, "World Soccer Convention and Exhibition" and "China International Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Congress", invited more than 60 experts and scholars from related fields, including Mr. Lu Hongze, Deputy Inspector of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports; Mr. Cao Xiao, Director of Communication Department of Beijing Sinobo Guoan Football Club; Mr. Sun Zhedong, Chairman of Beijing BG FC; Mr. Liu Chun, Vice General Manager and General Manager of Marketing Department of Wanda Sports (China Office); Mr. Liu Geming, Vice President of Marketing Department of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club(China Office); and Mr. Marius Lorenz, China Sports Strategy Officer of Borussia Dortmund Football Club, to give keynote speeches and take part in discussions. Attorney Wu joined the "World Soccer Convention and Exhibition" forum as the chairman.
The "World Soccer Convention and Exhibition" forum brought together a number of government leaders, experts and scholars, industry representatives and other industry leaders in order to gain insight into the trends of football industry and make suggestions on facilitating the development of the Chinese football industry. The forum was divided into three parts: "Insight to New Opportunities of Chinese Football Industry", "New Ecology, New Thinking and New Technology" and "International Youth Football Development". Mr. Lu Hongze, Deputy Inspector of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, and Mr. Gu Zhan, President of Lingshuo Sports Group (organizer of the forum) provided the opening speech. Under the guidance of Attorney Wu, the guests gave their speeches discussing topics ranging from individual clubs to the Chinese general football environment. Taking Beijing Sinobo Guoan Football Club and Beijing BG Football Club as examples, the guests made keynote speeches and roundtable discussions to explain the experience behind the clubs' development, interpreted domestic football new policies, current situations of minor training and campus football combining the professional management experience of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club and Borussia Dortmund Football Club. The discussions also focused on the new trend of Chinese football industry, and put eyes on new opportunities and patterns of the industry in the future. The second part of the forum focused on the external business environment of football industry. In this part, industry experts in the fields of game marketing, club management, research and development of sports science and technology, minor training and other fields discussed the application of new ideas and technologies in the new ecology of football industry. In the era of data and information, the football industry has been upgraded to a technological event that integrates data, information, and science. The changes in the technological environment have led to changes in the fields of marketing, management, training, and technology assessment, which not only requires practitioners to adapt to the environment quickly with new thinking patterns, but also puts forward higher requirements on the comprehensive improvement of the new sports ecology. In this regard, Attorney Wu gave his speech on the topic of "Intellectual Property Protection in Football Match Marketing", discussing the issues of event broadcasting, event sponsorship and derivatives exploitation under the hosting rights from the perspective of legal protection. He compared the protection of broadcasting rights of games in domestic and foreign legal systems, classifying and analyzing the disputes in the sponsorship process. With regard to domestic youth training which is the issue of the participants' greatest concern, the convention invited domestic and foreign experts with national team, club and minor training experience to conduct comprehensive communication on the key issues of talent scouting, training, and follow-up preservation of football talents.
This year's convention highlights "integration and transformation". Thus, the "China International Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Congress" was held contemporarily, bringing together international representatives of medical institutions, rehabilitation centers, medical rehabilitation equipment enterprises, as well as investment and financing institutions, forming an integrated sharing and communicating platform for sports and medical rehabilitation industries. As one of the few conventions that focus on the sports and health, the forum attracted approximately 3,000 people to register on-site. The participants at the meantime, are gradually cooperating with the winter project exhibition of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, so as to jointly promote the popularization and development of winter sports. Attorney Wu, together with other participants, communicated with exhibitors under the expectation to envision further innovation and cooperation in sports and technology industry.
Llinks Law Offices will advance with the development of the sports industry, to help deepen the integration of sports and technology, and escort further innovation of China's sports industry, with professional legal services.
