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But the court said the works were “not substantially similar. The appellate court found that Nike unquestionably had access to the original photograph.
RENTMASTER V. NIKE LICENSE
Rentmeester instructed Jordan to pose “inspired by ballet’s grand jeté.” After the photograph ran in Life magazine, Nike obtained a limited license for the image for $150 to use for a “slide presentation.” Later, Nike hired its own photograph to produce its own photograph of Jordan, which was then used as the basis for Nike’s “Jumpman” logo-a black silhouette used in connection with marketing billions of dollars of merchandise. Rentmeester took the original photograph of Jordan in 1984 in a field where the photographer mounted a basketball hoop on a tall pole. The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment in favor of Nike, finding that, while Rentmeester’s photo was “distinctive precisely because he chose not to be bound by the conventions commonly followed in photographing a basketball player attempting to dunk a basketball” and was entitled to “broad” copyright protection, the Nike-commissioned nevertheless photo had enough differences to not be an infringement.
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(February 28, 2018) A Nike, Inc.-commissioned photograph of Michael Jordan flying through the air holding a basketball with the Chicago skyline in the background did not infringe the copyright of a photograph of the basketball legend taken by famous photographer Jacobus Rentmeester.