Genius Sports Technologies & others v Soft Construct (Malta) Limited & others [2022] EWHC 2308 (Ch)
The parties trade in the field of sports betting databases, each party respectively being involved in creating, maintaining and monetising large collections of sports data. The claim was for database right infringement, and the defence denied in particular subsistence and copying.
There was immense complexity and expense involved in disclosing essentially each party’s entire database to its competitor, and the costs and case management conference took place over three days. Ultimately, the Court considered that neither the process for disclosure in the Business and Property Courts (PD57AD) nor the process of standard disclosure in CPR 31 was appropriate, and put in place an alternative regime bespoke to the case. In respect of costs, the Court held that some form of ‘costs control’ was necessary, but again found that the conventional approach (costs budgeting) would not be sufficient and instead made a costs capping order under CPR 3.19 of £5m.
The case is an illustrative example of the Court using its broad case management powers to keep even extremely high value litigation within reasonable and proportionate bounds.
Christopher Hall appeared for Genius Sports.
Only the costs aspect of the CCMC was the subject of a written judgment – see [2022] EWHC 2308 (Ch) and [2022] EWHC 2518 (Ch).