Nike jumps at chance to dismiss Michael Jordan lawsuit

Sportswear brand Nike has claimed that a lawsuit in which its basketball themed range was accused of using a copyright protected image of Michael Jordan is “meritless”.

In a motion to dismiss, Nike has claimed that the initial complaint by photographer Jacobus Rentmeester presents “exactly the sort of meritless case” that motions to dismiss are intended to address.

Rentmeester filed a complaint against Nike in January this year, seeking damages, profits generated from the image’s use and an injunction preventing further alleged infringement.

The image in question, which Rentmeester claimed he staged and shot for US magazine Life as part of a special edition for the 1984 Summer Olympics, shows former basketball star Michael Jordan leaping through the air.

In his initial complaint, filed at the US District Court for the District of Oregon, Rentmeester claimed that later that year Nike paid him $15,000 for a limited licence to use the image for two years but continued to reproduce the photo after that two-year period elapsed.

Nike went on to create the ‘Jumpman’ logo, a silhouette of the leaping Jordan allegedly inspired by the photograph, and subsequently launched the Jordan Brand division, which markets Michael Jordan products using the picture.

In its motion to dismiss, filed at the same court, Nike said the law is “clear” that infringement can only occur where “two photographs of the same subject are virtually identical”.

The motion added: “Rentmeester falls far short of that standard here given the significant—and self-evident—differences in the mood, lighting, setting, expression, colour, style and overall look and feel of his photograph.”

Nike also criticised the decision of Rentmeester to wait “decades” before filing the lawsuit.

“Rentmeester does not have a monopoly on Jordan, his appearance, his athletic prowess, or images of him dunking a basketball,” the motion added.

Rentmeester could not be contacted for comment.