The Premier League launched its lawsuit against Google in May 2007 in the US District Court in Manhattan.
It is suing for copyright infringement over hundreds of clips of Premiership matches that are freely available on YouTube.
It has several partners, including the French Football League and French Tennis Federation, as well as music publisher Cherry Lane -- responsible for the catalogues of several artists including Elvis Presley and Black Eyed Peas. There are 15 plaintiffs in total.
The English Premier League, along with music publishers and videographers, had argued that foreign material was governed by US copyright law without registration.
However, US District Court judge Louis Stanton ruled that damages under the Copyright Act were not available for foreign unregistered material, except for works that fall under the Act's "live broadcast exemption".
The plaintiffs can therefore, if they prevail at trial, seek statutory damages on infringement of live events.
This latest ruling means that if Google loses the lawsuit case, the damages payout should be lower.
Adam Barea, Google's attorney, said: "We are very pleased with the court's decision and will continue to vigorously defend against the remaining baseless claims in the case."
Google is also facing a separate lawsuit from MTV owner Viacom about the usage of its content on YouTube. Viacom is suing for $1bn in damages while the Premier League has not named a figure.
.jpg)
.jpg)