AMBUSH marketing and the role of Intellectual Property will be the topic of debate at the second Law Society free Public Debate of 2012.

The legalities of sponsorship and marketing are a burning issue in this Olympic year. They were highlighted this summer when Danish football striker Nicklas Bendtner was fined £80,000 and banned for one competitive game by Uefa for unauthorised sponsorship of a brand after he revealed a betting company’s logo on his underwear while celebrating a goal in a Euro 2012 game.

In the second event of the Law Society Public Debate Series 2012, the Law Society, in partnership with Huffington Post UK, has invited a panel of experts to examine the phenomenon of ambush marketing, its effects and the way intellectual property law interacts with sponsorship and businesses, both large and small in the context.

Ambush marketing, a hot topic in the area of intellectual property rights, is a marketing strategy whereby an advertiser, company or unofficial sponsor of an event “coat-tails” or associates themselves with the event and therefore capitalises on the goodwill, reputation, and popularity of a particular event by creating an association with it - without paying a sponsorship fee.

Debate speakers include Arthur Artinian, senior associate, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Official legal services provider to London 2012), Pierre Williams, Federation of Small Businesses, Sarah Hadland, partner, Boyes Turner LLP and Mark Blayney Stuart, head of research, Chartered Institute of Marketing, who will examine the law on ambush marketing and debate whether its enforcement is always proportionate.

Members of the public, legal professionals, academics, journalists, not-for-profit employees and volunteers and students are invited to attend the second in the new series of free lectures and debates examining key law reform issues in the UK, which are aimed to encourage education, training and thought leadership.

The event will be chaired by Des Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society. The debate will be held at 6.30pm on Tuesday, July 3 at the Law Society in Chancery Lane, London.

The debate will include a Q&A session with the audience. The Law Society bar will open from 7.45pm. The Law Society Public Debate Series is open to both members of the Law Society and the public and events are free to attend.