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18 January 2018

Fox throws counterpunch in Muhammad Ali image bout

Fox Broadcasting has thrown a counterpunch in a $30 million image rights bout against the estate of late boxer Muhammad Ali over a promotional video that was broadcast before the Super Bowl.

In October last year, the estate accused Fox of infringing Ali’s image rights by using his name, image and likeness as the centrepiece of Fox’s three-minute video for its broadcast, in February 2017.

“The video uses Ali to define greatness and ultimately to compare the NFL legends to Ali and thus define them and the Super Bowl as ‘greatness’ too,” said the claim.

Originally filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the case has now been moved to the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division.

On Tuesday, January 16, Fox asked the court to reject the estate’s claims over the promotional video.

Fox claimed that the segment involved a First Amendment activity on a matter of public interest, as the segment paid tribute to the life and legacy of Ali, by surveying his achievements and then related his accomplishments to Super Bowl athletes.

If the judge finds that a matter of public interest is involved, Ali’s estate will need to establish a probability that it will prevail on its claims before the case moves forward.

The broadcasting company filed another motion the same day, seeking judgment on the proceedings.

In the motion, Fox claimed that the estate contends it has the right to control everything that Fox could say or show about Ali.

“If the estate’s view of the law was correct, the same result would follow for the dozens of other people whose ‘identities’ were shown in order to survey the historical events presented in the segment,” warned Fox.

The broadcaster went on to state that the law doesn’t permit public figures to censor and control what broadcasters may say about them in order to cover an important event.

According to Nathan Siegel, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine and Fox’s representative, the segment is protected as a “news, public affairs, or sports broadcast or account” under Illinois law, has publicity rights protection under California law, and the publicity rights claim is pre-empted by federal copyright law.

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Copyright
18 July 2018   Fox Broadcasting and Muhammad Ali Enterprises have settled a dispute concerning the use of Ali’s image.