{"id":2320,"date":"2019-04-07T23:21:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T03:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=2320"},"modified":"2023-07-25T11:43:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T15:43:30","slug":"ea-and-retired-nfl-players-settle-suit-regarding-players-likeness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2019\/04\/ea-and-retired-nfl-players-settle-suit-regarding-players-likeness\/","title":{"rendered":"EA and Retired NFL Players Settle Suit Regarding Players\u2019 Likeness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of retired NFL players and Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) <a href=\"http:\/\/src.bna.com\/GQz\">settled\u00a0<\/a>a lawsuit this past week regarding the use of the players\u2019 likeness in the <em>Madden<\/em> football games in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n<p>While EA licensed current players\u2019 image, the \u201chistoric teams\u201d rosters in the game <a href=\"https:\/\/biglawbusiness.com\/madden-video-game-maker-settles-ex-nfl-players-lawsuit-1\">featured\u00a0<\/a>retired players whose images EA had not been authorized to use. While the game did not include the retired players\u2019 names, the players in the game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law360.com\/california\/articles\/1144568\/ex-nflers-ea-settle-madden-games-right-of-publicity-suit\">possessed\u00a0<\/a>other attributes that could serve as identifying characteristics.<\/p>\n<p>The judge in the case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law360.com\/california\/articles\/1144568\/ex-nflers-ea-settle-madden-games-right-of-publicity-suit\">rejected\u00a0<\/a>class certification for the roughly 6,000 former NFL players in the case. Class liability could not be found because of the individuality of each player\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n<p>The suit was initially\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/biglawbusiness.com\/madden-video-game-maker-settles-ex-nfl-players-lawsuit-1\">brought\u00a0<\/a>in 2010. EA <a href=\"https:\/\/biglawbusiness.com\/madden-video-game-maker-settles-ex-nfl-players-lawsuit-1\">moved to dismiss<\/a> the case, arguing that it quieted speech and that its use of the players\u2019 likenesses was transformative, incidental and in the public interest. The motion to dismiss was <a href=\"https:\/\/biglawbusiness.com\/madden-video-game-maker-settles-ex-nfl-players-lawsuit-1\">rejected\u00a0<\/a>and EA appealed to the Ninth Circuit. The court <a href=\"https:\/\/biglawbusiness.com\/madden-video-game-maker-settles-ex-nfl-players-lawsuit-1\">analogized\u00a0<\/a>this case to its ruling in <em>Keller v. Electronic Arts Inc<\/em>. (holding that EA\u2019s use of players\u2019 likeness in another of its video games, <em>NCAA Football<\/em>, was not transformative) and found these two cases to be indistinguishable. The Ninth Circuit, therefore, affirmed the lower court\u2019s rejection of EA\u2019s motion to dismiss.<\/p>\n<p>After being denied cert in the Supreme Court, a trial back in California was set for September of this year until the parties reached a deal.<\/p>\n<p><em>Andrew Distell is a Sports Highlight Contributor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current first year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2021).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/80128187@N08\/\">bloque interactivo<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/80128187@N08\/7340275250\/\">NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, left, plays the XBox 360 &#8220;EA Sports Madden 13&#8221; video game with EA Sports Executive Vice President, Andrew Wilson at the Microsoft Xbox 360 E3 2012 Media Briefing in Los Angeles Monday, June 4, 2012<\/a>\u00a0(cropped), <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0\/\">CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of retired NFL players and Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) settled\u00a0a lawsuit this past week regarding the use of the players\u2019 likeness in the Madden football games in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. While EA licensed current players\u2019 image, the \u201chistoric teams\u201d rosters in the game featured\u00a0retired players [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":2325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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