Knights clash over graphics

AUCKLAND: Sir Russell Coutts’ sailing interests have warned if graphics used by Sir Ian Taylor’s Animation Research for preChristmas racing are used in broadcasting the 36th America’s Cup, High Court action alleging breach of copyright will be filed.

The warning shot fired by two companies Sir Russell leads — Oracle Racing and F50 League LLC which trades as SailGP — has ramifications for how the upcoming Prada Cup and the America’s Cup is broadcast.

A legal notice alleging copyright infringement during preChristmas racing over graphics used in what is known as the LiveLine system of augmented reality broadcasting was sent to Animation Research Limited (ARL) and two other parties on December 23.

Sir Ian — recently knighted for his work including pioneering development of worldleading realtime 3D visualisation for major sports broadcasts beginning with Virtual Eye for the America’s Cup — says he is deeply disappointed that his fellow New Zealander served his company with a breach of copyright notice that could ‘‘seriously impact the coverage of both the upcoming Prada Cup and the America’s Cup itself’’.

In a response to questions from The New Zealand Herald, Sir Russell said: ‘‘We are simply seeking to safeguard IP [intellectual property] that we invested millions of dollars to develop over the last decade.

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

‘‘We have requested that the current America’s Cup organisers either avoid infringement by revising their graphics, or pay an appropriate licence fee.’’

Sir Ian claims the two Couttsled companies are asserting copyright based on imagery ARL created in 1992 and used in every America’s Cup since then — including in 1995 when Coutts famously made ‘‘the America’s Cup, New Zealand’s Cup’’.

‘‘We have delivered those graphics 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 winning it off Alinghi for BMW Oracle (USA) in 2010,’’ Sir Ian said.

It is understood Oracle Racing and Sail GP believe intellectual property associated with the Animation Research graphics was transferred to the events’ organisers at prior America’s Cup regattas.

Oracle Racing and SailGP are at the centre of a rival hitech sailing series, spearheaded by billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Sir Russell, the most successful helmsman in America’s Cup history.

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

Sir Ian confirmed he wrote to Coutts on December 7 last year detailing the technology Animation Research had been contracted to provide for broadcasting the 36th America’s Cup.

Sir Ian said he approached Sir Russell late last year offering to share new technology ARL had developed. He said he did not hear back until shortly before the first preChristmas regatta began, in which Sir Russell advised 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 23rd, just as we closed for Christmas, with a deadline of January 5th for our response.

‘‘It would be fair to say it threw our plans into a bit of chaos.’’

Earlier on, the challenger of record initiated talks with Sir Russell , inquiring about acquiring a licence to use the Liveline system in the coming America’s Cup match series.

That was ultimately declined by the challenger.

The Sir Russellled companies have said that if Animation Research wished to continue to use what they claim are copied images they were willing to discuss suitable licence terms.

Sir Ian acknowledged the LiveLine graphics were a significant step forward.

Sir Ian claimed what Sir Russell was creating was based entirely on the look of ARL’s Virtual Eye 3D graphics that had been universally acknowledged as finally making sense of sailing.

‘‘We were really chuffed that was the case because it was another step forward in telling the story of the America’s Cup.’’

Sir Ian said for the 36th America’s Cup, ARL adapted its own augmented reality graphics package that it used on other sports, including golf and cricket, to bring that technology to sailing as well.

‘‘Technology has advanced significantly since 2017 in Bermuda.’’

Sir Ian said the upshot of the threatened action was that ARL would now bring forward ideas it was planning to launch around the America’s Cup defence and apply them to the Prada Cup, which begins later this week in Auckland.

‘‘It has meant having to bring some of the team in from their holidays but there was no way we wanted this Kiwi showcase out on the Waitemata to be compromised in any way,’’ Sir Ian 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.’’

Sir Ian and the two other 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.