Brown
v. Electronic Arts, Inc.
United States District Court for the
Central District of California
Case No. 2:09-cv-01598
and
In
re: NCAA Student-Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation
(Keller, et al v. Electronic Arts, Inc.)
United States District Court for the
Northern District of California
Case No. 4:09-cv-01967
On July 31, 2013, the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals filed opinions in two separate, yet similar, cases involving
Electronic Arts ("EA") and two of its popular football franchises, Madden NFL and NCAA Football. In the first
case, former NFL player Jim Brown (widely regarded as one of the best NFL players of all time) filed
suit against EA claiming that its use of his likeness in its Madden NFL franchise violated §43 (a) of
the Lanham Act (KEY POINT: The Brown case, as decided, is based on the Lanham Act). Keller's case,
meanwhile, was a putative claim brought against EA claiming that the popular NCAA Football franchise violated his (and others in the class) right of publicity
under California Civil Code §3344 and California common law (as opposed to the Lanham Act). At first blush, these cases seem quite similar, yet the results were drastically different. In Brown,
the Court found that EA's use of Brown's likeness was protected under the First
Amendment. However, in Keller the
Court ruled that EA could not defend on First Amendment grounds and denied EA's
motion to dismiss. This all depends on whether the alleged infringing content is a trademark under the Lanham Act, or an individual's Right of Publicity. When analyzing an infringement claim under the Lanham Act, courts primarily apply the Rogers test which focuses on the artistic relevance of the trademark (or in this case, likeness) in relation to the creative work. Conversely, a right of publicity claim tends to be evaluated using the transformative use test which places a heightened burden on a content creator to show that a person's likeness is incidental to the overall work.
Why such different results?
One might except two cases arising
from nearly identical facts to have similar results, but the choice of claims
is what dictated the tests applied and the differing results. The Ninth Circuit looked to Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass'n
to establish that videogames are protected under the First Amendment as
expressive works because they, "communicate ideas—and even social messages—through
many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music)
and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player's
interaction with the virtual world)."
Using this as a basis, the Court ruled that a §43 (a) Lanham Act claim
fell within the Rogers test established
by the California Supreme Court. The Rogers test, established in Rogers v. Grimaldi, 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989), is
essentially a balancing test that seeks to weigh, "the public's First
Amendment interest in free expression against the public's interest in being
free from consumer confusion about affiliation and endorsement." The Rogers
test limits application of §43 (a) to expressive works,
[U]nless [the use of the trademark or
other identifying material] has no artistic relevance to the underlying work
whatsoever, or, if it has some artistic relevance, unless the [use of trademark
or other identifying material] explicitly misleads as to the source or the
content of the work.
In
evaluating Brown's suit against EA, the district court granted EA's motion for
summary judgment on grounds that Brown had not alleged sufficient facts to
satisfy either condition of the Rogers
test. In order to be "artistically
relevant" under the Rogers test,
the trademark (or in this case a person's likeness) must merely be "above
zero". The court reasoned that
because EA prides itself, and the Madden
series in particular, on its expressive goals of realism that Brown's likeness
has, "at least some artistic relevance to EA's work." The Court then looked to the second prong
of the Rogers test and found Brown's
argument lacking. Under the second
prong, a claimant must show that a defendant was explicitly misleading
consumers as to "the source or the content of the work." In this case, EA did not explicitly mislead
consumers. Although Brown is a famous
NFL player, it is highly unlikely that any players of the Madden series would believe that he was "somehow behind [the
game] or that [he] sponsors [EA's] product," because he is only one out of
many stars included in the game. While
there may be some consumers who are mislead, their confusion cannot be
attributed to an explicit representation by EA and therefore Brown's claim does
not satisfy this facet of the test.
Had Keller and the other parties to
the class action suit brought claims under the Lanham Act, the result would
have been similar. However, because Keller involved claims of statutory and
common law infringement of rights of publicity, the Ninth Circuit applied
another test altogether. EA attempted to
defend on the basis of First Amendment freedom of speech via a motion to strike
under California's Anti-SLAPP statute.
In order to prevail under the Anti-SLAPP statute the party asserting the
defense must first make a prima facie showing that the suit arises from an act
made by the defendant in connection with a public issue in furtherance of the
person's "right of petition or free speech under the United States
Constitution or the California Constitution." It is uncontested that EA's Madden series satisfies this requirement
in light of Brown v. Entertainment
Merchants Ass'n. However, the Court
denied the motion to strike because EA did not satisfy the second requirement
which requires the defendant have a likelihood of success on the merits. The reasoning for this was that under the
transformative use test, the Court believed that Keller had a legitimate claim
against EA.
Under the transformative use test,
the California Supreme Court outlined five factors which should be taken into account
when assessing whether a claimant's right of publicity has been violated. These five considerations are whether:
(1) the celebrity likeness is one of
the raw materials from which an original work is synthesized; (2) the work is
primarily the defendant's own expression if the expression is something other
than the likeness of the celebrity; (3) the literal and imitative or creative
elements predominate in the work; (4) the marketability and economic value of
the challenged work derives primarily from the fame of the celebrity depicted;
and (5) an artist's skill and talent has been manifestly subordinated to the
overall goal of creating a conventional portrait of a celebrity so as to
commercially exploit the celebrity's fame.
The Ninth Circuit focused predominantly
on
No
Doubt v. Activision Publishing to establish that EA's use of Keller's (and
the other members of the class) likeness was not a transformative use. Specifically, the Ninth Circuit reasoned
that, like in No Doubt, EA represented Keller as, "what he was: the
starting quarterback for Arizona State and Nebraska, and the game's setting is
identical to where the public found [Keller] during his collegiate career: on the
football field." The focus on realism relied upon in
Brown v. EA ended up being to EA's detriment in
Keller under the transformative use test. Unlike the
Rogers test that requires artistic relevance to only be "above zero", the transformative use test requires a defendant to go further and create a work that is more than just a direct copy of a real-life person. EA did argue that the
Rogers test should be
applied in this case as well. The court, however, denied this argument reasoning that the Lanham Act and the
Rogers
test are in place to protect consumers from confusion, but the right of
publicity is in place to protect the celebrity.
What
is the effect on the games industry?
Both
of these decisions have significant repercussions for the gaming industry. The
Madden
and
NCAA franchises have long
provided EA with
predictable returns on their investment on a year-to-year basis,
the increase in litigation is beginning to prove more trouble than it's worth
for EA's partners. Last month, the NCAA
announced that due to "the current
business climate and costs of litigation" it would not be renewing its
contract with EA which is set to expire in June 2014. However, this could affect more than just
EA. The Keller decision in particular
opens the door to litigation if any celebrity's likeness is utilized. While parody exceptions will still likely
cover most games that choose to employ a celebrity's likeness, this case sets
precedent for potential legal woes. More
than that, the
Keller decision in particular
is a blow to game developers in that it is the first restriction on the First
Amendment protections to come out of
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass'n.
As always, we will monitor this case for
new developments and update accordingly.
