America’s Cup Graphics: Sir Russell Coutts and Sir Ian Taylor of Animation Research in copyright dispute

Sir Russell Coutts’ boating interests have advised that if the graphics used by Sir Ian Taylor’s Animation Research for the pre-Christmas races are used in the 36th America’s Cup broadcast, an action will be brought in the Supreme Court claiming copyright infringement.

The warning shot fired by two companies that Coutts leads, Oracle Racing and F50 League LLC, which is listed as SailGP, has ramifications for how the upcoming Prada Cup and America’s Cup are broadcast.

On December 23, a legal notice alleging copyright infringement during the pre-Christmas races was sent to Animation Research Limited (ARL) and two other parties regarding graphics used in what is known as the LiveLine streaming system for augmented reality.

Taylor, recently knighted for his work, including the world’s leading real-time 3D display pioneering development for major sports broadcasts, beginning with Virtual Eye for the America’s Cup, says he is “deeply disappointed” that his fellow New Zealander served your company with a copyright notice infringement that could “seriously affect coverage of both the upcoming Prada Cup and America’s Cup.”

In response to questions from the Herald, Sir Russell Coutts said: “We simply seek to protect intellectual property [intellectual property] that we invested millions of dollars to develop over the last decade.

“We prefer not to be forced to protect our rights through legal process, but as with all copyrighted material, it must be licensed for use by commercial entities.

“We have requested that current organizers of the America’s Cup avoid infringement by reviewing their graphics or pay an appropriate license fee.”

Taylor claims that the two companies led by Coutts are claiming copyrights based on images created by ARL in 1992 and that they have been used in every America’s Cup since, including in 1995 when Coutts made the famous “America’s Cup, New Zealand’s Cup “.

“We have delivered those charts for events where he has also raced against New Zealand, starting with him taking the Cup away from New Zealand with Alinghi (Switzerland) in 2003 and then beating Alinghi for BMW Oracle (USA) in 2010.” . Taylor said.

It is understood that Oracle Racing and SailGP believe that the intellectual property associated with the Animation Research graphics has been transferred to the event organizers in previous America’s Cup races.

Oracle Racing and SailGP are at the center of a rival high-tech sailing series, spearheaded by Oracle’s billionaire founder Larry Ellison and Coutts, the most successful helmsman in America’s Cup history.

Their intention is to use the LiveLine graphics, of which they claim copyright, during the series.

Taylor confirmed to the Herald that he wrote to Coutts on December 7 of last year detailing the technology that Animation Research had contracted to provide the broadcast of the 36th America’s Cup.

Taylor says he reached out to Coutts late last year and offered to share the new technology that ARL had developed. He says he received no response until shortly before the first pre-Christmas regatta began, in which Coutts reported that he had some concerns about ARL’s plans but did not share what those concerns were.

“The next we heard from him was a legal letter that arrived on December 23, just as we were closing for Christmas, with a January 5 deadline for our response. It would be fair to say that it threw our plans into a bit of chaos. ”

Previously, the record challenger began discussions with Coutts, asking about acquiring a license to use the LiveLine system in the next series of Copa América matches.

That was eventually rejected by the challenger.

The companies led by Coutts have said that if Animation Research wishes to continue using what they claim to be copied images, they are willing to discuss the appropriate license terms.

Taylor acknowledges that the LiveLine graphics were an important step forward.

Taylor claims that what Coutts was creating was entirely based on the look of ARL’s 3D Virtual Eye graphics that had been universally recognized as finally making sense of navigation.

“We were really happy that that was the case because it was another step forward in the telling of the history of the Copa América.”

Taylor says that for the 36th America’s Cup, ARL adapted its own augmented reality graphics package that it used in other sports, including golf and cricket, to bring that technology to boating as well.

“Technology has advanced significantly since 2017 in Bermuda.”

Taylor says the result of the threatened action is that the ARL will now present ideas they planned to launch around the America’s Cup defense and apply them to the Prada Cup, which kicks off later this week in Auckland.

“It has meant having to bring in some team members from their vacation, but there was no way we would want this Kiwi exhibit in Waitematā to be compromised in any way,” Taylor said.

“My genuine wish is that we can put this behind us and do something together that benefits this sport that Russell has contributed so much to.”

Taylor and the other two parties sent a lengthy response to Oracle Racing and SailGP late on Friday after the original January 5 deadline was extended, but at this stage the matter has not been resolved.

What Sir Russell Coutts’ companies claim
LiveLine is an augmented reality system in race coverage, involving the use of course graphics overlaid on live images of racing action on the water, supplemented with real-time data acquired from various sources, including sensors on boats.
The system is protected by a US patent, and the companies run by Coutts have enforced copyright on an associated graphics package that has key elements: an outer course boundary edge; the ability to display written material within the border; a ladder or grid and numbers placed below parallel lines to reflect the direction and distance of the boats to the next mark.

Sir Ian Taylor’s answer
The companies led by Coutts claim copyright on three elements that we use in our Virtual Eye graphics package.
The first is a closed edge, basically the playing field established by the rules, the second is a grid of parallel lines that shows where the boats are in relation to each other and the signaling buoys, and finally the names of the sponsors who they are in the water.

We’ve been doing most of this since 1992 and we’ve done it every America’s Cup since.
Due to this threat, we have had to bring our staff on vacation to implement a new package that would be used for The Match. [the America’s Cup defence], but now we will present it for the Prada Cup so that fans are not harmed in any way by this action.