EA loses court case for using likenesses of NCAA athletes

Coming off the heels of ending their licensing agreement with the NCAA and signing a new one with the Collegiate Licensing Company, EA has lost their case with several NCAA athletes regarding using their likenesses without their permission.

In a divided 2-1 decision by the Court of Appeals, they have found that EA's use of these athletes' likenesses does not fall under freedom of speech, noting that there were too many similarities between the characters in-game and the actual said athletes to be ignored. 

In a separate case, EA won against former Cleveland Browns' running back and Hall of Famer Jim Brown for basically similar grounds. Brown alleged that the company attempted to profit from using his likeness by adding an unnamed character under their "All Browns Team" with the same characteristics as he does. 

I think there are provisions in the NCAA lawsuit that have made the courts lean more towards the players than EA or the NCAA. The players alleged that they were still in school when they were forced to sign papers to give up their rights to their likenesses. The NCAA itself is facing other suits connected to this issue, with many former players seeking to get a piece of the pie.

Of course, both cases will likely continue to go through appeals, with potential billions at stake in terms of payouts to unrenumerated athletes, which could potentially run back years. This also follows another recent court loss to Madden programmer Robin Antonick. EA is just going to have to go through the tide of bad press since they're not backing down on any of these cases.

Image from NCAA 14.

Source: Reuters