nba_g_jordan_b1_600x400 nba_e_jordan12_600x400
[Above: Jacobus Rentmeester’s photo of Michael Jordan and how the two silhouettes (Rentmeester’s left and Nike’s Jumpman right) compare.]

Jacobus Rentmeester is suing Nike in federal court in Oregon for copyright infringement. Not only is he asking for profits associated with the Jordan brand, which generated $3.2 billion in retail sales in 2014, but he also is seeking to halt current sales and plans for the brand’s future.
Rentmeester says he took a picture of Jordan in his Olympic warm-ups in 1984 for an issue of Life Magazine. After it was published, Nike’s Peter Moore, who designed the first Air Jordans, paid $150 for temporary use of Rentmeester’s slides. Rentmeester says Nike used his photo to recreate the shot with Jordan in Bulls gear with the Chicago skyline in the background, but that it was essentially still his work.

Nike Sued Over `Michael Jordan Logo (ESPN)

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9 thoughts on “Do Not Likey

  1. swoon

    There are no actual elements in the logo silhouette to be found in silhouette of original image.There must be hundreds of images of Jordan in a pose like this or similiar.The only stylistic similarilty is that the basketball player is floating/usolated in midair with legs apart with ball touching hand.

    It will be interesting to see the outcome.

    1. Soundings

      Yep, he’s a chancer. And the biggest change to the photo is the silhouetting.

      I once took a photo of an apple core after I’d eaten the apple. I think I’ll sue Apple Inc.

  2. Gavin

    Should prove interesting …..

    ….The lawsuit says that Rentmeester contacted Nike about the image shortly after finding out about it, and Nike eventually paid him $15,000 in March 1985 to use his photo for two years.
    Two years later, in 1987, Nike launched its Jumpman logo featuring a silhouette based on the company’s “jumpman” photograph….

    http://petapixel.com/2015/01/23/photographer-suing-nike-ripping-off-photo-iconic-jordan-jumpman-logo/

    Lesser claims have been successful.

  3. Dave J

    The fact that they paid him a sum of money for use of the photo for a short period of time ($15,000 in 1985 for two years) is in my opinion, an acknowledgment that his photograph was the inspiration for the logo. I think he should win.

    1. Paolo

      Nope, it’s the opposite. They paid him money to use his photograph as the basis of their logo. They then changed it completely after that agreement ended. There is not one single element of Rentmeester’s image in the current logo. Had they not had an agreement in the firsplace then Rentmeester could argue that they appropriated his copyright material but the existence of the agreement and subsequent logo change just underlines the fact that they no longer use his image. I would guess that there is an original image of Jordon that was taken for the reworked silhouette logo but I assume that Nike own the rights to that.

  4. pissedasanewt

    I think Nike could drag him through the courts and expend all his financial resources and ruin him. Unless Nike offer him a few hundred k to go away..

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