Intellectual Property Law

So after all the media scrutiny and conjecture (including on this blog which you can find here, here and here), the infamous Matt Walsh finally testified before members of Congress and said that he had no tapes of the Rams walk-throughs prior to Super Bowl XXXVI (commonly referred to as Spygate II). The Boston Herald, who first reported this story, has issued a retraction and apologized to the New England Patriots. See the story here.

The Boston Herald retraction reads as follows: “On Feb. 2, 2008, the Boston Herald reported that a member of the New England Patriots’ video staff taped the St. Louis Rams’ walk-through on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walk-through ever existed.”

What is more interesting is that Bill Belichick appears not able to let it all go. Instead of leaving well enough alone, Belichick has gone on the defensive calling out Matt Walsh and his football intelligence relating to Spygate I (the taping of teams defensive signals). You can read about that here. Why he would do this is unclear. It’s already of record that Belichick has taped defensive signals and been punished for it. According to Belichick, it was a matter of rule misinterpretation–a suspect rationalization given the evidence, and Roger Goodell didn’t buy it either. “I didn’t accept Bill Belichick’s explanation for what happened,” Goodell said Tuesday, “and I still don’t to this day.”

The NFL could still have problems as Sen. Arlen Specter has not yet washed his hands of the matter. He has said that he hopes the NFL will handle their business, but that he has not eliminated the potential that a judiciary committee could be formed to investigate the matter further. See that article here. However, as far as this blog is concerned, the unique issues relating to trade secrets and the Super Bowl walk-through appear to be at an end.