Nike Sues Lombardi Estate Over Nonexistent Audio Recording

Nike has filed suit in Washington County (OR) Court alleging that the estate of late Pro Football HOFer Vince Lombardi "took $150,000 for licensing rights to an audio recording of a speech by the famous football coach -- without revealing that it had no such recording," according to Travis Sanford of COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE. Nike "wanted to use the speech in an Internet commercial," and the company said that "the 'mere text' of the speech is useless for that." Nike named Vince Lombardi Jr., Susan Lombardi and CMG Worldwide, the exclusive rep of the Lombardi estate, as defendants in the suit. Nike said that during negotiations with CMG in '08, it asked the  agency to "send it a contract including specific language licensing the words and the voice recording" of Lombardi. Nike said that CMG "demanded payment for the license when Nike signed the contract," and that Nike "agreed, whereupon CMG said it would send an agreement with all of Nike's demands included." CMG "sent Nike the contract the same day and Nike's representative signed it." But Nike in the complaint claims the contract did not contain "all the changes Nike had requested." Nike "wants its money back, and damages for fraud, from CMG" (COURTHOUSENEWS.com, 3/10).