Football Dataco Ltd and others v Stan James (Abingdon) Ltd and others [2010] EWHC 841 (Ch), [2010] All ER (D) 157 (Apr)
In a case where the court was required to determine whether rights subsisted in annual fixture lists produced and published for purposes of English and Scottish Premier leagues and football leagues, it was held that the task for the court to follow was to identify the data which was collected and arranged in the database; analyse the work which had gone into the creation of the database by collecting and arranging the data so identified, to isolate that work which was properly regarded as selection and arrangement; ask whether the work of selection and arrangement was the author’s own intellectual creation and in particular whether it involved the author’s judgment, taste or discretion; and ask whether the work was quantitatively sufficient to attract copyright protection.
