UNFAIR COMPETITION - UNAUTHORIZED BROADCASTS OF BASEBALL GAMES

Authors

Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

The Pittsburgh Athletic Club sold to sponsors the exclusive right to broadcast the home baseball games of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The sponsors contracted with the National Broadcasting Corporation for the use of two stations. Station KQV, knowing of this arrangement, posted observers on leased premises outside and overlooking the ball park and proceeded to broadcast play-by-play accounts of the games. Each admission ticket contained a stipulation that the holder was not to transmit or aid in transmitting reports of the games outside the park. The athletic club, the sponsors, and the N.B.C. jointly brought an action for an injunction against KQV's acts. Held, that the athletic club had a property right in the games and the news thereof during and for a reasonable time after the games, and that defendant's acts were enjoinable since they constituted unfair competition as to each of the plaintiffs. Pittsburgh Athletic Club v. KQV Broadcasting Co., (D. C. Pa. 1938) 24 F. Supp. 490.

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, UNFAIR COMPETITION - UNAUTHORIZED BROADCASTS OF BASEBALL GAMES, 37 Mich. L. Rev. 988 (1939).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol37/iss6/29