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VILLANOVA LAW REVIEW ONLINE: TOLLE LEGE CITE: 60 VILL. L. REV. TOLLE LEGE 1(2014)
WHOSE GAME IS IT? SPORTS-WAGERING AND INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY
RYAN M. RODENBERG, ANASTASIOs KABURAKIS & JOHN T. HOLDEN*
IN 1992, Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act
(PASPA), a statute designed to prevent the further spread of state-sponsored
sports-wagering.1 The statute's language has the effect of granting a property
right to sports leagues, implicating the Constitution's Intellectual Property
Clause.2 The Intellectual Property Clause grants Congress the authority: To
promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times
to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
Discoveries.3
In 2012, Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League
(NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey
League (NHL), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
(collectively Sports Leagues) brought suit against New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie seeking an injunction under PASPA to prevent the state from offering
regulated sports-wagering.4 The Department of Justice (DOJ) eventually joined
the Sports Leagues as an intervenor.5 The matter was eventually appealed to
the Third Circuit where a divided court ruled 2-1 in favor of the Sports
Leagues.6
PASPA's section 3703-labeled Injunctions-includes the word
whose, which confers the ownership rights of competitive game[s] to the
Sports Leagues for enforcement purposes under the statute:
A civil action to enjoin a violation of section 3702 may be commenced
in an appropriate district court of the United States by the Attorney
General of the United States, or by a professional sports organization
or amateur sports organization whose competitive game is alleged to
* Rodenberg is an assistant professor at Florida State University. Kaburakis is an
assistant professor at Saint Louis University. Holden is a doctoral student at Florida State
University. This Article is based on a portion of the certiorari stage amici curiae brief
submitted by the authors. See Brief for Amici Curiae Ryan M. Rodenberg, Anastasios
Kaburakis, and John T. Holden in Support of Petitions for Writ of Certiorari, Christie v. Nat'l
Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 134 S. Ct. 2866 (2014) (No. 13-967), 2014 WL 1246719.
1. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 3701-04 (2012). In 1999, the Supreme Court discussed PASPA
briefly in Greater New Orleans Broadcasting. Ass'n, Inc. v. United States, 527 U.S. 173, 179-
80 (1999).
2. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 8; see also 28 U.S.C. §§ 3701-04.
3. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 8.
4. See Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, Nat'l Collegiate Athletic Ass'n
v. Christie, 926 F. Supp. 2d 551 (D.N.J. 2012) (No. 2:12-cv-04947), 2012 WL 3191255.
5. See David Purdum, Feds to Step in on New Jersey's Effort to Legalize Sports
Betting, THE SPORTING NEWS (Jan. 22, 2013), http://linemakers.sportingnews.com/sport/2013
-01-22/new-jersey-nj-sport-betting-law-dept-of-justice-doj-intervenes-chris-christie.
6. See Nat'l Collegiate Athletic Ass'n v. Governor of N.J., 730 F.3d 208 (3d Cir.
2013).
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VILLANOVA LAW REVIEW ONLINF- TOLLE LEr.F.
CITE: 60 VILL. L. REV. TOLLE LEGE 1 (2014)](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vlrtoleg60&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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