Video games and public figures: Legal update
summary
US cases show claims under right of publicity, trademark-style false endorsement, and First Amendment defenses collide unpredictably: Johnny Carson wins over portable toilets, Vanna White nets $403,000 from Samsung, a comic book triggers a juried $15 million award for using a sports name, EA faces a roughly $60 million players’ settlement while Lindsay Lohan and Manuel Noriega lose. Courts apply transformative, parody and relatedness tests inconsistently, so altering name, voice or look and avoiding implied endorsement matter.
AI-written summary · about