If this shit holds, It will be a fukin great day in gaming!! Sports and the Law: Supreme Court Rules the NFL Is Not a Single Entity By Marc Edelman 24 May 2010 at 1:57 PM 8Share.Above the Law has regularly blogged about why the National Football League should not be treated as a single entity under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. See here, here, and here. Today the Supreme Court agreed, ruling 9-0 to overturn the Seventh Circuit’s ruling in American Needle v. Nat’l Football League , in which the Seventh Circuit had held the NFL clubs sometimes exempt from Section 1 review. In a concise, 23-page opinion (PDF), the Supreme Court explained that the NFL is not a single entity because “the NFL teams do not possess either the unitary decisionmaking quality or the single aggregation of economic power characteristic of independent action.” This case will now be remanded to the Northern District of Illinois for further discovery and then review of its antitrust merits under the Rule of Reason. (More detailed discussions of the issues on remand are available here and here). Additional analysis and background, after the jump. * * * For those who are less familiar with the American Needle case, the original plaintiff, American Needle Inc., had for more than twenty years maintained a non-exclusive license to design and manufacture headgear bearing the NFL clubs’ names and logos. Then, nine years ago, the NFL clubs decided to offer an exclusive license to American Needle’s main rival, Reebok. Upon being foreclosed from the opportunity to sell NFL headgear, American Needle sued the NFL clubs in the Northern District of Illinois, contending that the new NFL licensing arrangement violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by illegally restraining trade in the market for purchasing rights to NFL logos. The NFL clubs, in turn, responded by not only alleging that their licensing arrangement was pro-competitive under antitrust law’s Rule of Reason but also by arguing that the NFL clubs constituted a single entity under antitrust law. This second argument was an attempt to obtain the case’s dismissal without ever allowing an assessment on the merits of the NFL’s licensing practices. After allowing the case to proceed into the discovery stage, Judge Moran of the Northern District of Illinois granted summary judgment in favor of the NFL clubs, ruling that the NFL acted as a single entity for purposes of trademark licensing and thus was exempt from Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that whether a sports league should be treated as a single entity is a matter to be decided “one league at a time” and “one facet of a league at a time.” In a final effort to overturn this ruling, American Needle hired the law firm of Jones Day and filed a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court. In its petition, American Needle noted that the Seventh Circuit’s ruling seemed to conflict with previous rulings about the single entity status of sports leagues issued in the First, Second, Third and Ninth Circuits. American Needle also argued that the Seventh Circuit may have overstepped its bounds given the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling in the case Copperweld Corp. v. Independence Tube Corp, in which the Court had held the proper test for single entity status involved whether the entity joins together separate economic decisionmakers. On June 23, 2009, the Court granted certiorari in the case (see here). The Court then heard oral arguments on January 13, and today issued its much awaited ruling. * * * Today’s ruling in favor of American Needle is hugely important to any plaintiff seeking to challenge sports leagues; conduct under Section 1 of the Sherman Act because it preserves the opportunity for the court to review league-wide conduct on its merits. Today’s ruling also is important from a broader antitrust perspective because it confirms that a collection of separate businesses that function as a cartel cannot “avoid antitrust law simply by creating a joint venture to serve as the exclusive seller of their competing products.” However, whether American Needle will ultimately prevail on the merits remains far from settled. As Rutgers School of Law-Camden professor Michael Carrier noted in a recent law review article, defendants have won 221 of the past 222 cases that have involved a court’s final determination under the Rule of Reason (link to Professor Carrier’s article) In addition, even if the NFL clubs’ licensing practices have led to some anti-competitive effects, league-wide trademark licensing might also produce some pro-competitive benefits by reducing the transaction costs of obtaining licenses to use all club logos on a single piece of merchandise (link to my law review article). Gratuitous Linky
Great, now 2K can make more shitty sports games. I'm waiting for THEIR exclusive MLB license to expire. Now THAT would be a great day.
I dont think they have an exclusive license. Otherwise how does the show come out every year. By the way in case I'm wrong devil, im totally with you. 2K Sports baseball games are always a heaping pile of dog shit. Sucks that I have a 360.
2K does have an exclusive license to be the only third party developer allowed to use MLB names, logos, etc. However, the actual console owning companies (ie Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, etc.) are allowed to make their own baseball games. Sony makes MLB the Show, which is why it's allowed to use MLB names and logos, and which is why it's only for the PlayStation And I, too, am waiting for the day the 2K license for MLB expires. I wanna play a new MVP Baseball. If they made a baseball game with generic ass logos/jerseys/team names like the "New York Mhets, with Josie Rayes at shortstop" I'd play that shit all the time.
I can agree there but then for that matter, Baseball games are usually shitty in 3 year spurts...The Show is probably the best there is right now. that said, No One can touch 2k football and that needs to come back in order to create a healthy competition. Madden is a fukin joke and has so many things wrong w/it that they refuse to fix because they don't have to.
never really liked any other football games aside from madden to be honest. and i think the NFL2k shit was overrated, nevertheless Madden has been mediocre a few years and for all the fanfare i dont blme people who dont like it. but I do. so either way I go with EA. NBA2k is nice though anyone remember World Series Baseball? haha oh man.
Or the Madden team will be forced to actually sell us more than a rehashed version of last year's game. That's what's wrong with monopolies, no incentive to improve your product or reduce prices. Obviously the price probably won't drop but we might see more risks taken by the Madden team. There's a reason we haven't seen a 'revolutionary' Madden game since Madden '05.
Disagree. It was ok, but nothing special. It had problems just like Madden, but people make it out to be this flawless game for some reason. 2K just doesn't seem to make good sports games. I didn't really like NFL. Their MLB series is at least playable this year, but still not great and their NHL series is MILES behind EA. Basketball I don't really play so I don't know. I've heard 2K's is pretty good this year, but the '08 version I had was pretty bad. Such as? People always say this, but they never give specifics. Of course there are problems, just like with any game, but what are they "refusing to fix"? Even with no other NFL games they have been steadily improving the last couple years since the new team took over.
if EA had taken baseball and 2k had taken football i think we would have a lot less pissed off sports gamers in the world. 2k sucks at making baseball games but they sure could make a football game.
This! I HATED the NFL's original decision to sign an exclusive agreement with EA. Competition breeds better games by forcing developers to think outside of the box and offer gamers more options, etc.
I wasn't overrating it. I just liked it more than Madden. In 2003 and 2004, 2K put out decent games and forced EA to make a better version of Madden. The ESPN half-time shows and the weekly update videos made the game's presentation much better than Madden's. 2K was also more realistic and the stats were much more in depth - half tackles, half sacks, and hurries were recorded. I've been incredibly disappointed with EA's football games since 2005. I think Madden 10 took a huge step in the right direction, but it still has a ton of problems. The only EA football game that I still play is NCAA 2006 for the PS2 - one of the best football games ever. I don't play any baseball games besides The Show because nothing can compete.
Madden always has those glitches where it will guarantee success on a play even if its not all physically there. Me and my friends will call it the "animation override." Its usually most obvious on passing plays where, for example, the receiver has bad position on cornerback and the receiver still makes the play despite the corner having the position (and vice versa). The corner usually slides backwards for no reason and the receiver makes his play. I've also seen pass rushers not go straight for the quarterback and make cromartie-like hesitations at times. Another "glitch" I noticed in the game was once I when was also playing the Colts in a franchise game, they had a lot of their linemen injured and had to put in a kicker for their center. I had Kris Jenkins go up against him and the kicker was like a stone wall. I know I was playing on all madden mode but this should NEVER happen. Watching some 5'8" 160 pound guy block Jenkins effective was pretty funny though.
If you don't know than I hate to say it, you're either: -Not a football gamer -Madden FanBoi I really hate using those terms and If I'm wrong I apologize but The reason I say this is because Madden issues have been so documented all over the place for years (with specifics) so..... If you really need things spelled out for you that's the only assumption I can make. Feel free to da google!
I didn't ask what the issues are. I know what they are. I asked what issues "they are refusing to fix." They may not be successful, but that doesn't mean that they refuse to address it. They struggled to make the change from the last gen systems and the '06-'08 era games were pretty bad, but the last two have been steadily improving.
The issues they are refusing to fix are the issues that deal w/ the engine and AI. i.e. Motion shifting, Speed burst, Defender awareness, line blocking just to name a few. What EA is doing is burying these known issues by masking them w/ other BS like gang tackling etc...
Well two of those things are being addressed this year; acceleration and blocking. And you can't say they are refusing to address them in one sentence, then turn around and say they were trying to mask them. You may disagree with the way the went about addressing then (ie "masking them") but they are not just ignoring them.
