In a much-waited development, Israel is to accede to the Madrid Protocol on September 1 2010. This will make it easier and cheaper for foreign entities to register marks in Israel.
UK football leagues sue Israel pools
Winner Toto runs the Israel national football pools. Under legislation from 1967, it has sole rights to organise sports betting in Israel. The profits earned are dedicated to the advancement of local sports. Since there are not enough matches played locally through the year, Winner Toto also selects fixtures from the English and Scottish leagues.
Through their marketing subsidiary, the UK leagues sued the Israel Council for Organising Gambling on Sports (Winner Toto) for revenues, claiming copyright infringement and unjust enrichment. Losing in the Tel Aviv District Court, they appealed to the Israel Supreme Court.
On March 14 2010, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the decision against the FA Premier League Ltd, the Football League Ltd, the Scottish Premier League Ltd, the Scottish Football League and Football DataCo (their licensing company). The court ruled that the data is not copyright protected because it lacks minimal creativity.
Having established that there is no copyright protection, the Court went on to rule that there is no basis for a remedy under the doctrine of unjust enrichment. Citing Justice Englard in the AShIR decision 5768/94 , the Court held that in cases where there are no IP rights, unjust enrichment is only applicable if there is a clear case of bad faith. Since by law Winner Toto has a monopoly, there are no grounds to see unfair competition. There is no competition.
However, there is a lack of logic in the court's reasoning. Unlike the AShIR precedent where grounds for compensation were found despite the plaintiff failing to register trade marks and designs, in this case the football leagues were not negligent in registering their IP rights, since copyright does not require registration and the fixtures are also apparently not covered by copyright law. In such a scenario, there is unjust enrichment since organisations such as Winner Toto free-ride on the leagues, who spend a fortune organising and promoting the matches.
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| Michael Factor |
JMB Factor & Co
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Israel 91450
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