This is a bit of a straw man argument. Common sense would suggest that at the time you're dropped from the NRL or otherwise leave with the NRL's blessing, you would be re-assigned the IP to take with you (with the NRL retaining some residual rights for re-use in future historical materials). Likewise handing over the IP to the NRL would only be a requirement at the time you actually get a license to enter. This isn't some ridiculously hard situation to work out where the lines should be.
Leigh.
Hypothetically then, what if the club itself didn't own their IP to begin with? For instance, what if an individual decided to launch a bid for a new NRL license. Let's call them, for argument's sake, the bombers. That individual invests personally into capitalizing the bid, and in turn, personally owns the IP for that bid. He receives all profits from the use of that IP, and, since he's such a philanthropist, donates those profits to the board which runs his club.
Can the NRL then dictate that the individual MUST hand over the rights to that IP? What if he sells those rights to a third party at some stage? What happens when his club is dropped, but in a similar fashion to how souths fought their way back in to the NRL, or the bears are currently attempting a launch from the CC, they lobby for re-inclusion themselves. Do they then get ALL their profits whilst they are out, which increases their wealth, only to be stripped of them again once re-admitted?
In the example of the bears, whilst North Sydney supports the Central Coast bid, they are a seperate entity entirely. So, should NSDRLC lose all their merchandise income, since they share colours and a logo? If so, would that mean they get their share of the NRL's merchandise pie, since they're contributing?
And what of any future merger? If another St George - Illawarra eventuate down the track, again for argument's sake, say between Souths and the Roosters, those two clubs would no longer exist in their own right, so would re-inherit their respective IP under your solution, correct?. They would form a new legal entity of some description, which would own the rights to the IP of the newly-formed franchise. Yet, both those clubs could continue to sell their "heritage" merchandise, but would not be obliged to share those proceeds with the NRL?
Common sense if well and good, but there is much more to this than just the current NRL climate might suggest. As an owner of intellectual property of any kind, I'd be fighting tooth and nail to maintain my right to do with it as I pleased. Sure the NRL might agree to lease the rights back to clubs for a token amount, but what if they change their mind? What if we find ourselves cashless one day in the future, with no major sponsor and a minimal income from broadcast rights? In 40 years time if this happened, the NRL ( or whatever it'll be called by then) might just say "nope, we're keeping all your IP now, 'cos we need the revenue".
Nope, the clubs have done all the legwork, they built their brands (in the most part) off the back of mountains of hard graft. They deserve the income generated by their IP, and the sport's governing body has no business DEMANDING that those rights be signed over. Clubs should all retain their own IP.
