Football Fixture Lists: English High Court Rules that Database Copyright Subsists

The English High Court ruled last Friday that database copyright (but not database right) subsists in the fixture lists of the English Football Association Premier League (FAPL), Scottish Premier League (SPL) and the other British professional football leagues.

Lawyers Lorna Caddy, Adam Rendle

The judgment will be welcomed by the creators of databases:

• It is the first English judgment recognising that database copyright subsists in a database, even though this particular right has existed for 13 years;
• The judge confirmed that the sui generis database right did not subsist in the fixture lists, following European Court of Justice (ECJ) decisions on the point;
• The judge was clearly satisfied, however, that database copyright does subsist, as the football fixture databases were sufficiently original;
• The judgment is likely to encourage creators of similar databases to require users to take licences where they reproduce parts of their databases; and
• There is some helpful (but not conclusive) guidance about which sorts of databases will and will not benefit from the database copyright. Database copyright may, for example, not subsist in databases which are easier to produce than these seasonal football league fixture lists or which involve a greater degree of random selection in their creation.

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