Sunnyvale, California — Yahoo is in a battle royal with the NFL Players Association, over the right to use pro football players’ stats, filed a lawsuit against the (NFLPA), disputing that it should not have to pay additional royalties to use player’s statistics and images and other data in its popular online fantasy football game because the information is already publicly available.
According to the complaint (PDF), Yahoo had licensing agreements with the players union for previous football seasons, which has expired in March, according to the complaint.
Yahoo alleges that the NFLPA has threatened to sue the company if it did not pay licensing fees that it has in the past for the players’ data. Yahoo has initiated its own lawsuit, claiming it does not have to renew based on past court decisions.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo filed its lawsuit Monday in federal court in Minneapolis.
“Yahoo, like other fantasy-football game providers, tracks, compiles and posts NFL player statistics,” Yahoo said in the suit.
However, Yahoo claims it no longer needs authorization from the association, citing a court decision in April in a similar dispute between NFL Players group and CBS Interactive (the parent company of CNET).
Yahoo argues that the information is not copyrightable and does not violate players’ rights of publicity — as the data is in the public domain — and the company has several precedents already in its favor.
The NFL Players Association granted the National Football League Players Inc. the “exclusive worldwide rights” to license the player’s biographical information, according to the suit.
In April, the players’ association lost a similar court case against CBS Interactive over the use of player data in fantasy sports games; that decision is currently under appeal.
The court in that case found that CBS Interactive need not have to pay for use of football players’ names or statistics because the information was already in the public domain. The players association is currently appealing that decision.
In its lawsuit, Yahoo is asking a federal judge to declare that its fantasy sports games does not violate the players’ rights of publicity owned or controlled by NFL Players, and that any such rights would be trumped by the First Amendment and federal copyright law anyway. It also asks to bar NFL Players from interfering with Yahoo’s fantasy sports businesses, from threatening litigation, or making any statements that Yahoo or its customers are infringing the rights of NFL Players.
Between 13 million to 15 million people take part in fantasy football leagues, generating more than $1 billion a year in revenue, according to court documents filed in that case.
Carl Francis, director of communications for the NFL Players Association, declined to comment on the lawsuit.