Tag: Student-Athletes
California Passes Law to Allow Student Athletes to Commercialize Their Identities
Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB206 which requires NCAA member universities to allow student athletes to sign endorsement deals and with agents and attorneys without losing their amateur status. Other states are following California's lead and introducing similar bills, and Congress has introduced a bill in the House along similar lines. I recently published...
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...
Supreme Court Punts on O’Bannon v. NCAA
On Monday, the Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari in O'Bannon v. NCAA, a Ninth Circuit decision from September 2015. The decision upheld the application of antitrust laws to the NCAA. The decision in O'Bannon rested in part on the conclusion that the use of the players' names and likenesses in videogames required licensing....
Student Athletes Lose Sixth Circuit Appeal in Marshall v. ESPN
Yesterday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a short opinion affirming a Tennesse district court's dismissal of claims by student-athletes. Lead plaintiff Javon Marshall (pictured above), a Vanderbilt football player, and other college football and basketball players filed a class-action complaint alleging that television broadcasts of their games by the defendants, including by ESPN,...
Professors File Brief Supporting Review of O’Bannon and Fixing Right of Publicity Mess
Last week I filed an amicus brief co-authored by Eugene Volokh and signed on to by 28 Constitutional Law and Intellectual Property Law professors supporting the petition for certiorari in O'Bannon, and in particular calling for guidance on the conflict between the First Amendment and the right of publicity. As I have written, O'Bannon v....
NCAA Petitions Supreme Court to Protect Uses of Athletes’ Names & Likenesses
Last week, the NCAA filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court in O'Bannon v. NCAA. The bulk of the petition seeks to overrule the Ninth Circuit's decision that the NCAA rules requiring amateurism violate the Sherman Act and antitrust law. Part of the petition also challenges the Ninth Circuit's "flawed intepretation of the...
Student-Athletes File Appeal in Marshall v. ESPN
The student-athlete plaintiffs in Marshall have filed their opening brief in their appeal to the Sixth Circuit. The Tennessee district court had earlier rejected the claim that television broadcasts of collegiate games violated the players’ rights of publicity under Tennessee law. The brief contends that the district court erred by excluding the sports broadcasts from...
EA Files Cert. Petition in Davis v. Electronic Arts
On Monday, EA filed a Petition seeking Supreme Court review in Davis v. Electronic Arts, 775 F.3d 1172 (9th Cir. 2015). The video game maker asks the Supreme Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit and hold that the use of realistic depictions of people in expressive works, including video games, is protected by the First...
Decision in O’Bannon v. NCAA Provides Right of Publicity Edge to the NCAA
The Ninth Circuit’s decision last week upholding the application of antitrust laws to the NCAA, has several implications for student-athletes and their rights of publicity. The appellate court’s holding that the NCAA could retain its rules requiring students to remain amateur means that student-athletes cannot receive compensation for uses of their names or likenesses, or...
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