Tag: Right of Publicity
Emotional Distress Award Affirmed for Model in California
NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect the withdrawal of the original appelalte opinon and its replacement with one filed on December 27, 2018. The only difference is that the new decision affirmed rather than reversed the trial court's holding with regard to there being no prevailing party for purposes of recovering statutory attorney...
Seventh Circuit Dismisses Athletes’ Case in Fantasy Sports Suit
Yesterday, the Seventh Circuit ended the Daniels v. Fanduel case. Several former college athletes had sued over the use of their names, images, and statistics in online fantasy sports games―in particular uses by FanDuel and DraftKing. The plaintiffs alleged that the uses violated their right of publicity under Indiana law. The district court had rejected...
FanDuel Wins Again as Uses of Athletes in Fantasy Sports Held Newsworthy
This week the Indiana Supreme Court held in Daniels v. FanDuel that uses of players’ names, pictures, and statistics in online fantasy sports games and related advertisements are of “newsworthy value.” Accordingly, the uses are not actionable under Indiana’s right of publicity statute which expressly exempts such matter from liability. Daniels involves a lawsuit brought...
Who Owns You When You are Dead
The video has finally been posted from my July talk about postmortem rights of publicity for the USPTO’s National Trademark Exposition held at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. My talk is followed by comments by a former IRS examiner and tax attorney, and a panel discussion with basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his business manager....
Court Denies Class Certification in Atheletes’ Suit Against Madden NFL Maker
Yesterday, the district court in Davis v. Electronic Arts confirmed its holding that there could not be class certification in the right of publicity case arising from the alleged use of NFL players' identities in the popular sports-themed video game series NFL Madden. The court rejected the motion to reconsider class certification, concluding that because...
Court Allows Players’ Case Against Madden Video Game to Proceed
The summer did not end well for Electronic Arts (EA), as a district court rejected its summary judgment motion in Davis v. Electronic Arts, allowing the right of publicity claims under California's common law to proceed. The claims arise out of the alleged use of real NFL players' identities as avatars in the Madden NFL...
DJ Khaled Sues Over Use of His Son’s Name
Last week Khaled M. Khaled, known popularly as DJ Khaled, and the company ATK Entertainment filed a lawsuit objecting to the alleged uses of his son’s name by a clothing company. The complaint (as resubmitted yesterday) alleges violations of trademark law, right of publicity and privacy laws (under N.Y. Civil Rights Law §§50-51), and state...
New York Legislature Deluged with Letters Opposing Right Of Publicity Bill
Dozens of letters opposing the recently reintroduced and amended version of a right of publicity bill in New York have already been submitted to members of the New York legislature. Letters so far include ones by: The Media Coalition, New York State Broadcasters Association, Association of Magazine Media, Getty Images, Shutterstock, Motion Picture Association of...
New York Right of Publicity Bill Resurrected Again
Once again as the New York legislature nears the end of its term for the year, the Assembly is trying to push through an ill-thought-out right of publicity bill without allowing for hearings and public debate on the bill. An amended version of the bill was introduced yesterday. The amended version suffers from most of...
The Threat Posed to History & Storytellers
In this final guest post, "Real People, Real History, Real Problems," on The Volokh Conspiracy about issues raised in my book, I consider the danger that the right of publicity will block or substantially limit depictions of real people. The expansion of the right of publicity's scope over the last few decades, combined with an...