• July 7, 2009

Yahoo has withdrawn its lawsuit against the National Football League Players Association over fantasy football. U.S. District Court Judge Patrick Schiltz signed an order Wednesday dismissing the case without prejudice, meaning that Yahoo can theoretically refile it later.

Yahoo and the Players Association issued statements that they had settled the case and would explore opportunites to work together, according to Reuters.

Yahoo went to court last month to ask for an order allowing it to use real players' statistics in fantasy football. Yahoo argued that it has a First Amendment right to use publicly available information about athletes, while the NFL Players Association took the position that harnessing information about the sports figures without their permission violates their right to control the commercial use of their image.

Several courts have recently held that companies operating fantasy sports leagues have a free speech right to use publicly available information about athletes. Most recently, in April, U.S. Federal District Court judge Ann Montgomery in Minnesota ruled in favor of CBS Interactive in a similar dispute. --Wendy Davis