Arsenal signs deal to enhance brand protection with CPA Global's FoundationIP

Web-based IP system to help tackle counterfeiting and better manage brand licensing

Arsenal Football Club has teamed up with intellectual property specialist CPA Global to take a lead in tackling counterfeiting.

Arsenal has signed up CPA Global’s FoundationIP, a unique web-based intellectual property (IP) management software solution, which will significantly enhance the Club’s ability to manage its trademarks, monitor trademark infringements and handle the licensing of its brands.

The London-based Premier League club holds exclusive rights to a large portfolio of well known and historical brands, each licensed for use by manufacturers in hundreds of jurisdictions across the world. The implementation of FoundationIP will help Arsenal’s in-house legal team and external counsel to control every aspect of the trademark management process, assisting the Club in maximising its revenue streams.

The software will make it easier and more effective for Arsenal to monitor instances of counterfeiting and infringement, helping the Club’s legal team to steer the strategic direction of their brand litigation cases and ensure decisions on the enforcement of their IP Rights are sound.

Ronald Crawford, IP and Licensing Legal Advisor at Arsenal, said: “One of the key aspects of FoundationIP is that we can ensure that a missed payment or renewal never goes unnoticed. This, together with an enhanced capability to track those who use our brands without permission, means that CPA Global’s software will lead to increased income from our brand protection activity more quickly, efficiently and cost effectively than ever before. It will allow us to invest more heavily in our players and facilities and provide the Club’s fans with the quality that they have come to expect from Arsenal Football Club.’

CPA Global’s Business Development Director, Rob Stichbury, commented: “FoundationIP’s web-based functionality makes implementation very quick and easy. Indeed Arsenal’s in-house team were in a position to start using the software within just four weeks of signing. The Arsenal brand is one of the Club’s most precious assets, and FoundationIP will help both the in-house team and their external counsel streamline their processes and ensure that full control is maintained over their intellectual property, protecting the value and integrity of the brand.”

About Arsenal Football Club

Arsenal is one of the leading clubs in world football with a strong heritage of success, progressive thinking and financial stability.

Arsenal Football Club was founded in 1886 when a group of workers at the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory in south London decided to form a football team. The Club played under the name of Dial Square before the name Royal Arsenal was adopted. In 1891, the Club turned professional and changed its name to Woolwich Arsenal, finally joining the Football League in 1893.

More than 100 years on, Arsenal has an impressive roll of honour: English League Champions 13 times, FA Cup winners 10 times, League Cup winners twice and European Cup Winners’ Cup (1994) and European Fairs Cup (1970) winners once.
 
In addition, Arsenal Ladies are the most successful English club in women's football.
 
In 2006 Arsenal embarked on a new chapter in its history with a move from its home of 93 years, Highbury Stadium, to the new state-of-the-art 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium. Emirates Stadium is split into four levels; a lower and upper tier with seating for 51,000 people and a corporate box and unique Club level with a 9,000 capacity across both levels.

The overall increase combined with the addition of Box and Club levels generates substantial match day revenues, which will help sustain and assist in developing the Club’s long-term football success. The stadium is the most technologically advanced and highest grossing football club stadium in the world and will further position Arsenal as one of the world’s leading clubs, both on and off the field.
Arsenal has over 27million fans globally and boasts the highest paid membership in world football.
 
In addition to income from ticket sales and broadcasting fees, revenue is drawn from the club’s four branded stores (located at the Emirates Stadium, Finsbury Park and Enfield) and its online retail operation. George Davies, the retailer behind the rise of Next, George at Asda and Per Una at Marks & Spencer has played a major role in redefining the Arsenal retail experience.

 For further information about Arsenal Football Club, please visit www.Arsenal.com.

About Foundation IP

FoundationIP is CPA Global’s web-based intellectual property (IP) management system for corporations and law firms that enables users to manage the entire IP process electronically. It provides a reliable and secure online environment to manage all matter-related information and activities in collaboration with people inside or outside of the organisation. Designed from its inception as a web-based system, FoundationIP directly addresses the growing needs faced by IP attorney firms and corporations to reduce the overhead and inefficiencies inherent in the paper-based IP management processes. It also more tightly integrates people outside their own departmental or organisational boundaries into the IP prosecution workflow.

For further information visit: www.cpaglobal.com/software/foundationip or contact the CPA Global media relations team below.

About CPA Global

CPA Global is the world's leading provider of legal services outsourcing, including intellectual property (IP), litigation support and contract management. With offices across Europe, the United States, Asia and the Pacific, CPA Global supports many of the world’s best known corporations and law firms with a diverse set of legal and IP specific requirements.

CPA Global helps its clients manage their valuable IP Rights, such as patents, designs and trademarks, ensuring that IP portfolios are protected, maintained and regularly reviewed in order to maximise value. Through its successful diversification strategy, the company has also established itself as a leader in the growing market for broader outsourced legal services, helping law firms and corporations to realise value by managing risk, cost and capacity on their behalf.

Founded in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1969, CPA Global today employs more than 1,300 people in 15 offices in 10 countries, including key city locations such as London, Paris, Munich, Washington DC, Sydney, Hong Kong and New Delhi; and has strategic partnerships covering a number of other important markets, including Japan and Korea. The company has a large and diverse list of clients: from major global corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises and innovation start-ups; and from the top international law firms to national and regional law and IP firms. Clients include leading Fortune 500 and FTSE companies, and two-thirds of the Global Lawyer 100.

For further information visit: www.cpaglobal.com or contact our media relations team:

United Kingdom
Steve Clark +44 (0)1784 224 351, sclark@cpaglobal.com
Rob Coveney +44 (0)1784 224 557, rcoveney@cpaglobal.com

United States
Julie Mandell+1 (571) 227-7025, jmandell@cpaglobal.com