Congrats to famous player in big city

[FleetFeet]

Wow. I'm not even sure where to start.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/07/derek-jeter-should-not-be-congratulated-by-anyone-except-his-sponsors/1

Casey Close, Jeter's agent, said he won't quibble with a 'congratulations' ad as long as Jeter's name, likeness, uniform number, captain or 3,000 is not included in the chatter or headline.

"If we have to protect, or if we have to make phone calls, or if we have to send letters, or if we have to do whatever is necessary, we will," he told Tharp.

 

[cranberry]

Is your position that Jeter's agents shouldn't protect their client's legal interests against companies that would choose to exploit those rights without his permission?

 

[FleetFeet]

Might be a newbie question or misreading the USAToday article - I've never covered pro sports - but isn't it at all conceivable that one day sports agents (or similar stakeholders) will target newspapers for the same thing?

If I have an amateur photographer business (which I don't) and I have a great view of Jeter's 3,000th hit or as he rounds the bases or whatever and snap a nice photo and want to market it ... what's to stop me? Jeter's goons, apparently.

I think Jeter's expectation of privacy and certain related rights when working in front of 30,000 - 50,000 people each night can and should be called into question. The New York Post can't sell an ad with "congrats Jeter 3000" to a business that has long supported the Yankees and the paper?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm guessing Nike already has something planned and this is to protect that.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

There's case law here telling this guy to get lost. You can't trademark a baseball record, or for that matter, a name. Jeter is a public figure, not intellectual property.

 

[The Big Ragu]

There's case law here telling this guy to get lost. You can't trademark a baseball record, or for that matter, a name. Jeter is a public figure, not intellectual property.

I'm not a lawyer. And I don't have the definitive answer. But Jeter's status as a public figure does not make his image or name fair game for commercial use. Haven't the courts always decided commercial use separately from first amendment issues?

 

[cranberry]

There's case law on Jeter's side, too. All Close is doing is saying he'll do whatever is necessary to protect Jeter's right of publicity. Considering this is just a warning and nothing is yet being disputed, I don't know how anyone can determine who's right and who's wrong.

 

[LongTimeListener]

We have lawyers on the board who can correct me on this, but when it comes to protecting your image, isn't there a principle that if you're ever aware of an unauthorized use and choose not to assert your rights, then you've given up those rights for future cases as well? Seems like I see that interpretation cited quite a bit whenever a mom-and-pop place runs up against a big corporate entity.

 

[The Big Ragu]

There's case law on Jeter's side, too. All Close is doing is saying he'll do whatever is necessary to protect Jeter's right of publicity. Considering this is just a warning and nothing is yet being disputed, I don't know how anyone can determine who's right and who's wrong.

Right. But since we are not talking about any real infringement, it becomes a PR issue. And in my opinion, he looks like a giant, money-grubbing douche -- that is the perception when a typical person reads that.

Has anyone ever actually picked up the phone and sent out warning letters to people warning them in ADVANCE not to infringe their image, because they want to squeeze every nickel out of it themselves?

It's one thing if someone violates you and you respond. They are warning specific people who haven't done anything.

 

[cranberry]

There's case law on Jeter's side, too. All Close is doing is saying he'll do whatever is necessary to protect Jeter's right of publicity. Considering this is just a warning and nothing is yet being disputed, I don't know how anyone can determine who's right and who's wrong.

Right. But since we are not talking about any real infringement, it becomes a PR issue. And in my opinion, he looks like a giant, money-grubbing douche -- that is the perception when a typical person reads that.

Has anyone ever actually picked up the phone and sent out warning letters to people warning them in ADVANCE not to infringe their image, because they want to squeeze every nickel out of it themselves?

It's one thing if someone violates you and you respond. They are warning specific people who haven't done anything.

Seems like due diligence to me. Isn't it easier to prevent damage than repair damage?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Might be a newbie question or misreading the USAToday article - I've never covered pro sports - but isn't it at all conceivable that one day sports agents (or similar stakeholders) will target newspapers for the same thing?

No. There is an enormous difference between editorial use and commercial use to sell a product.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

In the trades I read at my day job, there are an infinite number of special sections which are editorial tributes to Big Shot X of Megamedia Y. These exist to create advertising revenue from the guy's business partners, and oddly, business rivals, buying ads saying "Congratulation Big Shot you wonderful human being you."
I don't think you can say "congrats Derek, Drink Pepsi!" unless Jeter has a Pepsi deal. But I have to think "Congratulations to Derek from Pepsico," which is not a commercial solicitation, would be OK.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

If any of the NY papers want to make a commemorative poster they just need a few lines of text that make it "technically" a story with a huge photo and not a poster.

I worked at a paper that did this all the time.

 

[YankeeFan]

When I was in charge of Sports Marketing at Continental, the Yankees signed Hideki Matsui.

Matsui already had his own deal with JAL. (They actually had his face plastered on two 747's used for domestic service.)

Japan/Tokyo was a big market for us (and one where we could really increase revenue if we captured a little more market share).

Baseball is huge there and the Yankees are a major brand.

Now, for whatever reason, Randy Levine & the Yankees asked us to fly him in for his press conference. Our folks in Japan were thrilled just for the PR.

I came up with the idea of running an ad to capitalize on it as we were the Official Airline of the Yankees. Since we couldn't use his name, as he had a deal with a competing airline, I suggested we use his nickname, Godzilla.

So, we ran full page ads saying, "Welcome to New York, Godzilla. Hope you enjoyed the flight." (Or something very close to that.)

When we went to the Yankees, they objected as they didn't want to **** him off and told us we couldn't use their logo (and basically said we couldn't do the ad).

But, by this time, the ad had already taken on a life of its own and I wasn't able to stop it, so we ran it with out the Yankee logo.

The Yankees were pissed. But we were pleased with it.

We also reached out to Matsui's US based agent and, despite his deal with JAL (which he didn't cut), he thought it was pretty cool and didn't object to it.

We'd bartered tickets with Roger Clemens for him to appear in promotional videos for us, and I'm pretty sure we ran a congratulations ad when he won his 300th game without incident.

We'd donated tickets to Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation over the years. Delta is now the Official Airline of the Yankees, so I'm not sure if Continental/United will try to do anything to commemorate it. I guess I doubt it since they're no longer affiliated with the Yankees.

 

[FleetFeet]

Might be a newbie question or misreading the USAToday article - I've never covered pro sports - but isn't it at all conceivable that one day sports agents (or similar stakeholders) will target newspapers for the same thing?

No. There is an enormous difference between editorial use and commercial use to sell a product.

So Jeter's image and the number "3,000" won't be on the front page of how many newspapers in America the day after he reaches the milestone? Eventually, somebody one day will successfully argue newspapers are, in fact, trying to make money (even if they're not very good at it).

 

[heyabbott]

Viagra congratulates Derek Jeter on his 3,000th hit.

 

[The Big Ragu]

There's case law on Jeter's side, too. All Close is doing is saying he'll do whatever is necessary to protect Jeter's right of publicity. Considering this is just a warning and nothing is yet being disputed, I don't know how anyone can determine who's right and who's wrong.

Right. But since we are not talking about any real infringement, it becomes a PR issue. And in my opinion, he looks like a giant, money-grubbing douche -- that is the perception when a typical person reads that.

Has anyone ever actually picked up the phone and sent out warning letters to people warning them in ADVANCE not to infringe their image, because they want to squeeze every nickel out of it themselves?

It's one thing if someone violates you and you respond. They are warning specific people who haven't done anything.

Seems like due diligence to me. Isn't it easier to prevent damage than repair damage?

Yup. Which is why someone affiliated with Casey Close should have prevented him from creating a ton of PR damage for his client. The NY Post jumped on it and then it spread nationally.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Might be a newbie question or misreading the USAToday article - I've never covered pro sports - but isn't it at all conceivable that one day sports agents (or similar stakeholders) will target newspapers for the same thing?

No. There is an enormous difference between editorial use and commercial use to sell a product.

So Jeter's image and the number "3,000" won't be on the front page of how many newspapers in America the day after he reaches the milestone? Eventually, somebody one day will successfully argue newspapers are, in fact, trying to make money (even if they're not very good at it).

No, they won't.

It's a pretty nuanced distinction, but it's a distinction nonetheless, and an absolutely settled one.

I'm not sure why you think it's OK for, say, Apple to use Derek Jeter as an unpaid endorser to essentially sell Macbooks.

 

[cranberry]

There's case law on Jeter's side, too. All Close is doing is saying he'll do whatever is necessary to protect Jeter's right of publicity. Considering this is just a warning and nothing is yet being disputed, I don't know how anyone can determine who's right and who's wrong.

Right. But since we are not talking about any real infringement, it becomes a PR issue. And in my opinion, he looks like a giant, money-grubbing douche -- that is the perception when a typical person reads that.

Has anyone ever actually picked up the phone and sent out warning letters to people warning them in ADVANCE not to infringe their image, because they want to squeeze every nickel out of it themselves?

It's one thing if someone violates you and you respond. They are warning specific people who haven't done anything.

Seems like due diligence to me. Isn't it easier to prevent damage than repair damage?

Yup. Which is why someone affiliated with Casey Close should have prevented him from creating a ton of PR damage for his client. The NY Post jumped on it and then it spread nationally.

You're exaggerating. Plus, I'm not even sure a majority of ignorant NY Post readers would side with corporations which choose to exploit a baseball player's commercial rights without paying for them. Jeter will suffer not a bit from this story.

 

[TwoGloves]

Viagra congratulates Derek Jeter on his 3,000th hit.

Jeter uses Viagra?