Sports Artist & the First Amendment Beat Tiger Woods's Right of Publicity

Tiger Woods recently lost round 2 of his bout with sports artist Rick Rush. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in the suits defines boundaries of right-of-publicity claims as well as limitations on traditional trademark protections for celebrities or famous athletes who desire to control the use of their image and likeness. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected ETW's assertion that the use of Tiger Woods' name in Jireh Publishing Inc's narrative and other shipping materials was an infringement of ETW's trademark. Instead, the court concluded that this use of Woods' name qualified as a "fair use," which permits others to use a protected mark to describe characteristics of their own products or services.