This week, the NFL Players Association terminated its deal with Italian collectibles company Panini S.p.A. three years early in favor of rival Fanatics, and Not a lot, explains Ross Feingold, special counsel at Taipei-based Titan Attorneys-at-Law, are two quotes from the original article that are included in this rewrite. The NFL Players Association’s (NFLPA) termination of its deal with Panini S.p.A. has raised questions about the future of the company’s pro-football-themed NFTs. The NFLPA’s statement reads that Fanatics now has the exclusive right to make NFLPA-branded trading cards, which is likely focused on the multi-million-dollar market for cardboard sports cards.
Ross Feingold, special counsel at Taipei-based Titan Attorneys-at-Law, explains that the first sale doctrine outlines that the owner of a legal copy of a copyrighted work has a right to display, lend, sell, or even dispose of that copy without the permission of the copyright owner. This means that the Panini-minted NFTs are unlikely to vanish anytime soon. Feingold also points to a number of court cases from the 1990s that have investigated the intersection between the right of publicity, intellectual property ownership of team logos, and the right of first sale.
Joshua Durham, a legal scholar, argues in a February 2023 paper that the NFT landscape is evolving faster than the law. He explains that the U.S. Copyright Office has rejected the idea of a digital first sale due to the impossibility of confirming the deletion of the original file. Feingold does not think much will happen, as Panini might even keep its markets open, though there will likely not be a mint happening anytime soon.