Why did Yahoo! Sports settle suit with NFLPA over fantasy stats?

July 8, 7:49 AMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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The dispute didn't last very long. Barely a month after Yahoo! Sports filed its legal action in a Minnesota federal district court, it has settled the matter. But when the judge followed the request of the parties to dismiss the case, it was done without prejudice, which allows one party or the other to return to its battle stations and starting firing again.

Yahoo! announced that it has decided to drop the action against the NFLPA in which it had asserted its right to use the name and stats related to individual NFL players in the course of its fantasy football application without paying a licensing fee. Neither side would discuss the settlement terms and Yahoo! Sports spokesperson, Nicole Addison confirmed the company's policy in that regard.

When it filed the case, Yahoo! was following the lead of CBS Sports that has become tied up in an appeal by the NFLPA. The union lost its case with CBS at the district level but decided to pursue it at the appellate level.

The Yahoo! dismissal isn't a typical conclusion in a case where parties agree to stop bickering. And if a handsome sum of money is handed over, it is rare that the party paying a price for its position would agree to allow the argument to re-start. That leads me to believe a big check was not involved. The official statement from the NFLPA used this description of the settlement:

NFLPA and Yahoo "continue to explore additional opportunities to work together."

The CBS case had piggy-backed on the favorable decision that emanated from a dispute between a smaller sports site which had gone a few rounds with the MLB players union. The decision in that case was unequivocal about the right of a commercial enterprise to use information that was deemed to be in the public domain, similar to the right of a newspaper to use the same material.

A summary of the background related to these fantasy stat lawsuits can be found, here.

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