People | Paul Groves

Paul Groves advises on a broad range of commercial matters relating to the Sports, Sponsorship and Interactive Entertainment industries. His time at Harbottle & Lewis has also included a year on part-time secondment to an international sports rights holder, dealing with the exploitation of broadcasting rights, branding arrangements and interactive games licensing. Paul has worked on groundshare agreements between top-flight football and rugby clubs, endorsement contracts, significant sponsorship arrangements (including Barclays’ appointment as the title sponsor of the Premier League, npower’s title sponsorship of the Football League and various deals relating to the London 2012 Olympics) and other commercial deals for renowned brands, sports teams and personalities.

Paul advises on the commercial and intellectual property issues in the interactive entertainment sector with a particular focus on the computer games industry. His workload covers the exploitation of digital media, licensing and development contracts across mainstream console, mobile and online platforms, distribution arrangements, the development and exploitation of advergames and in-game advertising within leading games titles. Paul also advises clients in respect of gambling issues connected with prize promotions and promotional competitions (including sweepstakes and free draws).

A member of the British Association for Sport and Law, Paul has contributed to presentations on the exploitation of new media rights in sport, computer games concepts and the protection and licensing of image rights and has had numerous articles published on industry related topics.

The Legal 500 publication describes Paul as being “very knowledgeable about games, sponsorship and the sports market” and has cited him as both a “computer games expert” and a “rising star” in the field of Media and Entertainment. Paul is also noted as an “Associate to Watch” in the 2010 Chambers and Partners publication and is listed as a legal expert in the field of “Brand Management” in the Legal Experts Guide 2010.

Paul qualified in March 2006 after training with the firm, and in 2007 obtained the highest overall mark in his year for the Postgraduate Certificate in Sports Law from King's College, London. In 2010 Paul was named the Assistant Solicitor/Associate of the Year at the British Legal Awards.