There was a court case regarding "database rights" for horse racing data in the UK, where the British Horseracing Board sued William Hill (a bookmaker) and lost the case. The BHB basically wanted to charge for the right to publish the horse racing fields (i.e. details of each race, the runners, etc).
The lawsuit backfired completely. The BHB had wanted to charge newspapers for publishing horse racing fixtures, but it inspired the newspapers to turn around and question why the BHB wasn't paying them for devoting pages to the sport.
(Looks like the case also involved football fixtures as well)
Details of the case law here: http://www.out-law.com/page-392 And of the court case: http://www.out-law.com/page-5055
The lawsuit backfired completely. The BHB had wanted to charge newspapers for publishing horse racing fixtures, but it inspired the newspapers to turn around and question why the BHB wasn't paying them for devoting pages to the sport.
(Looks like the case also involved football fixtures as well)