Campaign to check quality of sports goods launched

RIYADH: The Ministry of Commerce and Investment (MCI) has turned its focus on the quality of sporting goods available in the market.
Kingdom-wide inspections began on Sunday to combat displaying and selling of counterfeit goods in the market.
The MCI, in cooperation with the General Authority of Sports, launched a campaign to safeguard the trademarks and logos of Saudi sports clubs.
According to an official from the MCI, the mutual plan with the General Authority of Sports aims to safeguard Saudi sports clubs’ trademarks, logos and intellectual property in conformity with trademark regulations.
“Logos represent an investment opportunity to the clubs,” he said, pointing out that such checks would protect the national economy from procedural violations by errant traders.
“Preparations for the campaign are complete and the MCI inspection teams are ready to tour all parts of the Kingdom to combat the displaying and selling of counterfeit goods.”
In preparation for the inspections, the MCI and the General Authority of Sports earlier held numerous meetings.
Recently, the MCI organized workshops attended by many specialists from the Saudi General Authority of Sports, representatives from the Professional League Association and Saudi clubs to discover ways and means of safeguarding the trademarks of sports clubs in the Kingdom.
The workshop discussed the mechanism to register the trademarks of the sports clubs and safeguard the intellectual property of the producers, and adjustments to be applied in the near future since it is an investment opportunity for the clubs.
During the workshops, participants urged the sports clubs to display trademarks on the products and services related to their activities. Also, it was suggested to set up booths next to the stadiums and sporting venues during football matches to combat peddlers in cooperation with the concerned authorities.
The participants also suggested selling the products and sports clothes of different qualities and prices to cater to the needs of all levels of consumers.