Sports Law: The Use of Athletes' Images - The Right of Publicity in a Sports Context

The use of athletes' images is the current frontier of the body of law relating to rights of publicity, with pending cases involving professional and amateur athletes in varying contexts. That body of law is extremely unclear because the courts have enunciated numerous conflicting tests on the subject. Particularly delicate is the balancing between First Amendment rights of the party that uses the image and the athletes' rights to exploit the hard work that has gone into giving that image value. The panelists addressing this issue have all had first-hand experience with it as litigators and/or as academics.

• The unclear state of the law
• The tests courts have used to determine liability
• The balancing between First Amendment rights and wrongful exploitation
• Rights of publicity in a professional sports context
• Rights of publicity in an amateur sports context
• The dated U.S. Supreme Court right of publicity jurisprudence
• Pending sports cases likely to set the course of the law in this area
• Public policy issues

• What's in a Game? Courts, Sports, Speech and Videogames
  Ronald Katz
• America's Dumbest and Most Abusive Right of Publicity Cases
  K.J. Greene
• The Right of Publicity and Doctrinal Social Justice
  Lateef Mtima

Presentation Material

• Right of Publicity: Trolls, Bullies & Lawyers
  Lateef Mtima, Elizabeth A. McNamara, K.J. Greene