Case Number
CA 8485/08
Date Decided
1-25-2010
Decision Type
Appellate
Document Type
Full Opinion
Abstract
Facts: The appellants manage the professional football leagues in the United Kingdom, and regularly conduct an annual tournament among the teams in those leagues. As part of this activity, they organize and schedule matches, all of which are listed in schedules (fixture lists) that they publish. The respondent holds exclusive authority within Israel to arrange betting on sports events, and arranges such betting not only on matches played by Israeli teams, but also on matches that are a part of the appellants’ tournaments. For this purpose, the respondent lists the appellants’ matches on its betting forms, using the information about these matches that is included in the fixture lists.
The appellants filed an action against the respondent in the Tel Aviv District Court, claiming that its use of the information from the fixture lists constituted a copyright violation, or alternatively that the respondent’s use of such information gave rise to a claim of unjust enrichment. The District Court denied the claim, and this appeal followed.
Held: Both the old and new Israeli copyright statutes provide for copyright protection only for works that express originality. The case law has interpreted the originality requirement — as it applies to compilation works such as the appellants’ fixture lists — by establishing parallel tests, one referring to the level of the author’s investment in the work, and the other referring to the degree that the work reflects the author’s creativity. The latter test creates a requirement that not only is the author the “source of the work” but that he has also left an imprint of his spirit on the work. In this case, the investment test had been met, at least at the minimal level which is required. However, neither the selection of the information included in the list (i.e., all the matches in the tournaments) nor the design of its presentation (reflecting nothing other than the most logical arrangement of the basic information) could establish that the required minimal level of creativity was involved in the appellants’ preparation of the lists.
Furthermore, even if the respondent’s use of the fixture lists had amounted to the use of a protected work, there was no violation of the copyright here. The respondent used only some of the matches included in the lists, and only the information required for the purpose of preparing its betting forms.
Regarding the claim for unjust enrichment, such claims are allowed in cases involving uses of intellectual property that do not constitute a copyright violation, but only where the party which is alleged to have unjustly enriched itself has engaged in improper business practices, which is not the case here.
Keywords
Copyright, Torts -- Unjust enrichment
