Football Data co Ltd v. Yahoo! UK Ltd

“Originality arises from intellectual creativity — not from time, labour, or investment alone.”

Short Description

This decision clarified how copyright originality works in the context of sports fixture lists and databases. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that football fixture lists do not qualify as copyright-protected works because their creation involves rules, constraints, and administrative logic rather than creative choices. The Court drew a firm line between creative expression and functional compilation.

Facts

Football Dataco Ltd (FDC) was responsible for preparing detailed fixture lists for major football leagues in England and Scotland. Creating these lists required a vast amount of logistical coordination — stadium availability, police recommendations, avoiding clashes, travel considerations, and broadcaster requirements.

Yahoo! UK and Stan James used these fixture lists on their websites without obtaining a licence. FDC alleged copyright infringement, arguing that the complex and labor-intensive process behind the fixtures clearly demonstrated originality. Yahoo argued that the lists were routine administrative outputs without creative freedom.

Findings / Reasoning

The CJEU concluded that a database or compilation is only protected if it is the result of the author’s own intellectual creation.

The Court emphasized that originality must come from creative choices in selecting or arranging information, not from skill or labour applied to gathering data. Since fixture creation followed strict rules, constraints, and timetabling formulae, there was no creative freedom for alternative arrangements. Therefore, the lists lacked the required originality to attract copyright protection.

Suggestions / Observations

The ruling highlights the difference between

• creative work, which copyright protects, and

• investment-heavy but functional work, which may need database rights instead.

Sports organizations are encouraged to rely on contracts, licensing systems, and database rights to protect commercially valuable data. Businesses should not assume that large investments automatically grant copyright. Creative structuring or expression must be clearly identifiable.

Judgment & Date

CJEU ruled that football fixture lists do not meet the originality threshold for copyright protection, and Yahoo’s use was not infringing.

Judgment Date : 1 March 2012