Joshua Charalambous
UK Guide 2025
Band 5 : Sport
Band 5
About
Provided by Joshua Charalambous
Practice Areas
Josh is a Partner in RPC's Sports, Commercial and IP groups and advises on contentious and non-contentious issues in the sports, esports, interactive entertainment (video games), media (film, TV, music, podcasts and news), retail and consumer and technology sectors.
He is a specialist in sports regulatory, governance, safeguarding and disciplinary matters, and commercial contracts (sponsorship, retail supply chain, media rights acquisition and distribution, licensing and other BAU agreements).
Josh advises on the full range of IP rights and has significant disputes experience before the UK Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, IPEC, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Court of Arbitration for Sport, national sports regulatory/disciplinary forum, and national and international arbitration bodies.
He provides support on corporate deals in the sports sector, involving IP rights and licensing, and advises insurers (and, where applicable, their insureds) on pursuit, defence, coverage, monitoring and policy wording issues involving sports, IP, media and entertainment claims.
Professional Memberships
Sport Industry NextGen Leader 2021
LawInSport
British Association for Sport and Law
Independent Council Member, English Schools' FA (2017-2020)
Publications
Josh regularly contributes as an author to Entertainment Law Review and LawInSport on IP and sports related matters and is a regular speaker at sports law, esports and other industry events.
Work Highlights
Acting for the founding clubs of Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) to create the leading domestic women's club rugby competition in the world (leading on sports regulatory, delegation and licensing and commercial rights matters).
Advising on media rights acquisition, distribution and broadcast sponsorship agreements across a range of sports including football.
Acting for Soft Construct, a leading live sports data and sports content supplier, in relation to IP and competition law infringement proceedings in the English High Court involving Genius Sports, Football DataCo and others.
Supporting a leading video games developer and publisher in respect of an international product launch in over 20+ jurisdictions, considering issues relating to age verification, local regulatory requirements, and online terms and conditions.
Acting both claimant and defendant side on ongoing trade mark, passing off, design right and copyright claims – in the IPEC and English High Court – in the retail, interactive entertainment and FMCG sectors.
Chambers Review
UK
Joshua Charalambous is a partner in RPC's sports group. He advises clients on a range of matters including disputes and transactions.
Strengths
Provided by Chambers
"I could not speak more highly of Josh. He’s a pleasure to work with and an extension of our own team."
"Josh is an absolute pleasure to work with, and his careful and patient management of stakeholders was invaluable."
"Josh is a great lawyer. He knows what is important to the client. He has extremely good judgement and very deep sector knowledge, and I really valued that."
"Josh has a unique breadth and depth of industry experience. This, combined with his innate pragmatism, means he is quick to earn trust and confidence and is a joy to work with."
"I could not speak more highly of Josh. He’s a pleasure to work with and an extension of our own team."
"Josh is an absolute pleasure to work with, and his careful and patient management of stakeholders was invaluable."
"Josh is a great lawyer. He knows what is important to the client. He has extremely good judgement and very deep sector knowledge, and I really valued that."
"Josh has a unique breadth and depth of industry experience. This, combined with his innate pragmatism, means he is quick to earn trust and confidence and is a joy to work with."
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