Yahoo sues NFL players over fantasy football

NEW YORK, USA: Internet major Yahoo filed a lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) Players Association seeking to block the organization from controlling the players' names, pictures and voices, which are publicly available, that Yahoo uses in its fantasy-football game.

The complaint (case number 0:09cv1272) filed on June 1 in U.S. District Court for Minnesota, USA, alleges that the NFL players has threated Yahoo with litigation for the use of publicly available NFL player statistics and related information in connection with Yahoo's NFL fantasy football game.

Yahoo, in the complaint said that it is one of the leading providers of fantasy sports services in the United States and currently offers a variety of fantasy sports games for different professional sports, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf and auto racing.

Though Yahoo had licensing agreements with NFL Players Association for previous football seasons, the last of those deals got expired on March 1, the complaint said.

However, Yahoo claimed that it need not be authorized by Players Inc. to use the publicly available names, likenesses (including, without limitation, numbers), pictures, photographs, voices, facsimile signatures and/or biographical information of individual NFL players in connection with its fantasy football game.

NFL Players Association is a Virginia non-profit corporation.