Post by leunas on Aug 18, 2006 12:55:51 GMT -5
A US district court judge in St. Louis has ruled that fantasy baseball leagues can use player names and stats without permission from Major League Baseball because MLB doesn’t own any intellectual property in the names or stats. The lawsuit was filed after MLB refused to grant CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. a new licensing deal for the use of pro ball player stats.
You can expect the MLB to appeal this one: pro licensing deals are worth millions.
The ruling of course does not affect any personality rights that individual players may have, so sports games developers and publishers will still need licences from player associations to use player likenesses in games. They’ll also need trade-mark and copyright licences to use team and league logos in games.
Also, in some countries (such as Canada) privacy laws might prohibit gaming companies from using personal information about players in games without their consent.
davis.ca/community/blogs/video_games/archive/2006/08/10/747.aspx
You can expect the MLB to appeal this one: pro licensing deals are worth millions.
The ruling of course does not affect any personality rights that individual players may have, so sports games developers and publishers will still need licences from player associations to use player likenesses in games. They’ll also need trade-mark and copyright licences to use team and league logos in games.
Also, in some countries (such as Canada) privacy laws might prohibit gaming companies from using personal information about players in games without their consent.
davis.ca/community/blogs/video_games/archive/2006/08/10/747.aspx