U.S. Supreme Court Denies Petition To Hear MLBAM/CDM Dispute
By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal
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Supreme Court Denies Petition From MLBAM
And MLBPA To Hear CDM Appeal |
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning denied the petition from MLBAM and the MLBPA to have their appeal in the CDM Fantasy Sports case heard in the nation's highest court, bringing to an end a bitter legal fight lasting more than three years. St. Louis-based CDM in '06 won the right in federal district court to use MLB player names and stats in commercial fantasy games without a license, setting off a lengthy series of appeals from MLBAM and the union and mushrooming into a case with significant implications for all of celebrity licensing. Even before today's decision, many fantasy game operators had begun to reduce or eliminate their rights payments for fantasy games, or demand other intellectual property such as online game highlight video. To that end, today's move will likely embolden game operators further, and also perhaps bring further revisions to MLBAM's five-year, $50M deal with the union for the players' interactive rights. MLBAM last fall stopped making payments to the union on that deal and have not restarted this year. CDM attorney Rudy Telscher said, "This definitely feels great. Baseball had a fairly arrogant tone through this thing and was an aggressive opponent. But this is good for the fantasy industry. You've got a bunch of smaller guys who built this industry into what it's become, and for baseball to come in like they did 25 years after the fact and try to push everybody out, that just wasn't right." MLBAM execs declined immediate comment.
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