With improvements in technology, more and more data about sporting events is being captured. A number of different groups claim to “own” such data - the players themselves (“the data wouldn't exist if we didn't participate”), the data companies (“it's our technology which is driving data collection and analytics”) and the sports rightsowners themselves (“it's our competition”).
The truth is that there is no property right in information itself. Nobody owns the fact that a goal has been scored, or foul has occurred. That is pre-existing, factual data. But, in Europe, there is an ability, through the sui database right, for those who make a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying and presenting data, to obtain an intellectual property right in the resultant database into which the data is stored. Rights in the database can be owned and can be exploited as a...
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