Court Finds No Sui Generis IP Rights for Sporting Event Organisers 

November, 2013 - Olivier Vrins

Between 2007 and 2009 non-profit association Motor Sports Limes (MSL) hosted motocross races on a piece of land that it owned. It claimed to have taken all necessary safety precautions, including marking and securing circuit, for the races and associated events held there. According to MSL, only accredited photographers had to sign a contract with MSL, which included a clause stating that no commercial use of photos taken at the races could be made without MSL's prior consent. 


In 2010 MSL saw that several photos taken as its races in 2007, 2008 and 2009 had been used by Mr. Costich and MX Only One SARL in advertisements to promote similar events which they organized. As MSL had not authorized this use, it began proceedings against Costich and Only One before the Arlon Court of First Instance, requesting an injunction against further commerical use of the photos and damages. 


The case was not based on alleged breach of contract as neither Costich nor Only One had signed the MSL accreditation contract. Further, there was no evidence that the photographer (who was not involved in the proceedings) had signed such contract with MSL. 


MSL's claim relied on an alleged infringement of the "intellectual property rights assimilated to neighboring rights" which it claimed to enjoy under the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act (June 30 1994) as the organiser of the sporting events where the photographs had been taken.                                                                                                                                                                                                   




Footnotes:
For further information on this topic please contact Olivier Vrins at ALTIUS by telephone (+32 2 426 1414), fax (+32 2 426 2030) or email ([email protected]). Endnotes (1) EU Directive 89/552/EC on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in member states concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, as amended by EU Directive 97/36/EC and EU Directive 2007/65/EC. (2) The document states that according to EU law, in principle the organiser of a sporting event owns the radio and television rights and may thus grant exclusive rights to a broadcaster. It adds that exclusive broadcasting rights are an integral part of the normal functioning of the highly competitive broadcasting market and are considered to be the central driving force of the system that generates revenues for sporting organisations and television channels. On the other hand, it regrets that such exclusive rights have pushed up the cost of broadcasting rights for sporting events to the point that only the richest broadcasting organisations can bid for them, pointing out that this rise in costs has increased the likelihood that the exclusive rights to major sporting events (eg, the Olympic Games) will be granted only to commercial broadcasters who run pay-per-view channels or channels which are not available in all parts of the country for which the rights have been purchased. (3) The court pointed out that the front cover of the document stated: "The points of view expressed are exclusively the personal points of view of their author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Parliament." (4) European Court of Justice, C-403/08, Football Association Premier League (October 4 2011), www.curia.eu. In a similar context, the French Court of Cassation recently ruled that participants in television reality shows enjoy no neighbouring right to copyright (Ammour v TF1, April 24 2013 – for further details please see "Temptation Island – do reality show participants hold neighbouring rights?"). (5) The situation is different in Italy, for example, where the legislature has recognised the organisers of sports events as co-owners of the audiovisual rights related to such events (D Lgs January 9 2008 no 9). (6) See Recitals 7 and 8 of the directive. The materials contained on this website are for general information purposes only and are subject to the disclaimer. 

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