AALS Section on Law and Sports Panel Discussion

For those attending the 2011 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Conference in San Francisco next month, the Chair of the Section on Law and Sports, Ed Edmonds, has announced this year's panel discussion:

American Needle v. NFL and the Single Entity Defense:
A New Frontier for Sports and Antitrust Law

January 8, 2011
3:30-5:15 PM

Section on Law and Sports
Yosemite C, Ballroom Level, Hilton San Francisco Union Square


Moderator:

Edmund P. Edmonds, Notre Dame Law School


Speakers:

Gabriel A. Feldman, Tulane University School of Law

- Author of The Puzzling Persistence of the Single Entity Argument for Sports Leagues: American Needle and the Supreme Court's Opportunity to Reject a Flawed Defense, 2010 WISCONSIN LAW REVIEW (2010)


Michael A. McCann, Vermont Law School

- Author of American Needle v. NFL: An Opportunity to Reshape Sports Law, 119 YALE LAW JOURNAL 726 (2010)

- Author of The NBA and the Single Entity Defense: A Better Case? 1 HARVARD JOURNAL OF SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT LAW 40 (2010)


On May 24, 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued its eagerly anticipated decision in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, 130 S. Ct. 2201 (2010). In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Stevens, the Court reversed and remanded the Seventh Circuit's opinion regarding the licensing of the NFL's intellectual property. The case involves a fundamental question of whether or not the National Football League is a single entity, and, as such, exempt from attack under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Court held that the league, through its separate corporation NFL Properties, was involved in concerted action when it granted an exclusive license to one vendor, and, thus, not categorically insulated from a Section 1 challenge. The case presented the Supreme Court with an opportunity to clarify its decision in Copperweld Corp. v. Independence Tube Corporation, 467 U.S. 752 (1984).