An escalating legal war between two top sports card companies is prompting questions about how digital collectibles like NFTs fit into the mix.
This week the NFL Players Association terminated its deal with Italian collectibles company Panini S.p.A three years early in favor of rival Fanatics.
BREAKING: NFLPA says it has terminated its relationship with Panini effective immediately in letter sent this afternoon to agents.
Fanatics is in three years early.
Panini cannot produce any NFL cards with players names or likeness. pic.twitter.com/z7CoEJwR9U
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 21, 2023
“Effective immediately, Fanatics has the exclusive right to make NFLPA-branded trading cards,” the statement reads. It’s almost certainly focused on the multi-million dollar market for cardboard sports cards. What’s less clear is how this sudden reneging could impact Panini’s pro-football-themed NFTs.
The NFL Players Association did not immediately respond to an email from CoinDesk.
Fanatics has made its mark in the trading card business via licensing deals with the MLB, NBA, and NFLPA, and purchasing Topps – another trading card company – for $500 million, leading to an ongoing legal conflict with Panini.
But what does this mean for the minted NFL NFTs?
Not a lot, explains Ross Feingold, special counsel at Taipei-based Titan Attorneys-at-Law.
The first sale doctrine, explains Feingold, outlines that the owner of a legal copy of a copyrighted work has a right to display, lend, sell, or even dispose of that copy without the permission of the copyright owner.
“I could draw a mustache on Shohei Ohtani on [a baseball card], and then put it on eBay and sell it,” Feingold said. “Fanatics can’t come after me for infringement.”
So don’t expect the Panini-minted NFTs to vanish anytime soon. The company didn’t immediately return a request for comment from CoinDesk.
The trading card industrial complex spent a lot of time in court in the 1990s as licenses and limits of the first sale doctrine were tested. Feingold points to a few pivotal cases from that time as creating the legal framework that will guide arguments in court, should a dispute over NFL NFTs ever make it before a judge.
Over the years, and up into the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Cryptocurrencies Feed…
