IFWT_jumpman-air-jordan-photo-shoot-poster

You know what image this is in reference to; it’s the most iconic image in sports, Michael Jordan, soaring in for a dunk, defying gravity with his legs spread and his arm over his head with the ball about to throw down a massive dunk.  You know it because it is the “jumpman” logo on the Jordan brand.  But that’s the problem for a photographer who has filed a lawsuit against NIKE — he says the shoe manufacturer didn’t have the rights to use the image in that way.

Shay Marie

From the Associated Press (via ProBasketballTalk):

Jacobus Rentmeester of New York City filed the lawsuit against Oregon-based Nike Inc. on Thursday in federal court in Portland, Oregon. He’s seeking unspecified monetary damages, profits generated from the image, and an injunction preventing further copyright infringement.

Rentmeester staged and shot the photo for Life magazine as part of a special section published for the 1984 Summer Olympics. As a freelancer, he retained rights to the copyright. Nike later paid him $150 for temporary use of two transparencies of the photo.

According to the complaint, Nike then produced a nearly identical photograph of Jordan and reproduced it on billboards, and when Rentmeester threatened litigation, the Oregon company paid him $15,000 for a limited license to use the image for two years.

The complaint says Nike continued to reproduce the photo after that period and used it to create the distinctive “Jumpman” logo, a silhouette of the leaping Jordan inspired by the photograph. The company went on to create the Jordan Brand division, which markets Michael Jordan products using the photo and the logo.

Jordan later recreated the image for a Nike photoshoot as you see above.  Just one thought… What took him so long to file this claim?  Aside from that it sounds like he has a legitimate case and will receive another paycheck from Nike but a much bigger one this time.