Press Trust of India
New Delhi, Oct 29: BAI president Akhilesh Das Gupta announced Thursday the return of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) after a two-year gap. But the tournament will surely run into legal hurdles with former partner Sporty Solutionz Private Limited (SSPL), moving the Delhi High Court to protect their intellectual rights.
The IBL-II will be a 15-day affair from January 2-17, featuring six teams which will battle it out in the USD one million competition. Present at the season two launch were ace shuttlers Saina Nehwal, K Srikanth and PV Sindhu along with national coach Pullela Gopichand.
Das Gupta assured that the tournament will be bigger and better than the inaugural edition. “It’s a proud moment for me today (Thursday) as I announce the second edition of the IBL and which I can assure you, will be bigger and larger than the first edition,” he said.
Two franchise owners have already been announced with Delhi being bought by Infinite Computer Solutions, and Lucknow will again have the Sahara Parivar who are known for their contribution to Indian sports.
“The rest of the franchisees are in advance talks and the announcement for the same will be made soon,” informed Das Gupta.
But now that BAI has decided to conduct the IBL with new partner ‘Sportzlive’, former partner SSPL has taken legal recourse.
“We on behalf of our clients, M/s Sporty Solutionz Pvt Ltd have applied for the protection of intellectual property rights of our clients. We have invested heavily to build the ‘brand IBL’. We have pleaded in the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi to restrict any other party from using the name, logo, title or any property associated with IBL,” said SSPL counsel Sanjeev Kumar here Thursday, a few hours after the BAI media conference.
Das Gupta or any other BAI official was not available for comment on this issue.