Intellectual Property Magazine
Football decoders - making a drama out of a sporting event?
Europe
In light of the hype surrounding the CJEU's recent Premier League copyright ruling,Nick Rudgard from Addleshaw Goddard considers several rulings which help identify the possible IP protection behind sporting events
The recent ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on 4 October 2011 in Murphy
1 and QC Leisure
2 has received considerable analysis from the point of view of the impact a network of exclusive territorial licences can have
on the single market objective. However, the underlying intellectual property rights (IPR) in the broadcasts also warrant
attention, as they were central to the (unsuccessful) argument that protecting those IPR justified the restrictions imposed
on free movement. In the end, the CJEU ruled that IPR owners could obtain appropriate remuneration without the contractual
restrictions (though not necessarily the highest possible remuneration). In addition, it was ultimately the "fragments" (as
the CJEU put it) of protectable copyright material in the broadcasts, which led the CJEU to conclude that the broadcasts could
not be made available to the public without the IPR owners' prior consent.