Re: Tiger Woods Suit

On 2/19/99, Tyler T. Ochoa <tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> wrote:
>
> On 02/18/99, John Noble <jnoble[_at_]dgsys.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 2/17/99, Patrick Begos <begos[_at_]ibm.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > The NY Times reported yesterday that Tiger Woods' management
> > > company (run by his father), has sued an artist who painted a
> > > picture (and then printed copies) of Tiger Woods' victory at
> > > Augusta. Woods is claiming trademark infringement and violation
> > > of his right to publicity. Apparently his counsel is being very
> > > heavy-handed, among other things, demanding the names of 6,000
> > > people to whom the prints were sold, and claiming that they will
> > > depose each one (at ruinous expense to defendant).
> >

[snip]
> > > It's an interesting intersection between a celebrity's rights in
> > > his name and image, and an artist's first amendment rights to
> > > paint whatever he wants.

[snip]
> >
> > It's an interesting question, but I gotta think the First Amendment
> > still trumps the Lanham Act.
>
> Again, don't count on it. My impression is that the First Amendment
> is usually held NOT to bar an action based on consumer confusion.
> Certainly courts are in agreement that confusing consumers isn't
> protected speech. And the First Amendment didn't help the defendants
> in the Zacchini (right of publicity) case. Courts seem to find that
> the urge to compensate celebrities is very strong.
>
> I think that this activity probably SHOULD be protected by the First
> Amendment as a normative matter; but that's a long way from concluding
> that it will be.

There was a case involving Joe Montana and the San Jose Merc a few years ago. As I recall, the Merc reused sports-news photos of Montana for a special supplement commemorating the 49ers, or something along those lines. I think it was also right of publicity, but the Merc won. How different is that from Woods' case?

Do golf courses in any way purport to bind spectators? What about the PGA tour? I'm thinking of the way some museums purport to controls visitors' photographing public domain art works.

Lee

Lee Tien
<tien[_at_]well.com> Received on Sun Feb 21 1999 - 06:38:29 GMT