Menu
Morning Buzz

Olympians Suing Samsung Over Use Of Likenesses In Marketing

A group of 18 Olympians yesterday sued Samsung, alleging the company did not have permission to incorporate their names and photos into their “Samsung Genome Project.” Among the list of athletes suing are Dara Torres, Mark Spitz, Greg Louganis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Aaron Peirsol, Cullen Jones and Jessica Hardy. The “Genome Project” is Samsung’s primary '12 Olympic marketing platform in the U.S. It is a Facebook application that allows users to see their connection to past and present Olympians. The app was developed by Team Epic and supported by the USOC.

Agents began raising questions last fall about the idea of featuring athletes on the app without their permission and without compensation. Some athletes have endorsements with Samsung competitors like Torres, who has a deal with Hewlett-Packard. Samsung gave athletes the chance to opt out of the program, but many athletes did not respond to the opt-out request. The suit does not specify the damages the athletes are seeking. The story was first reported by Bloomberg.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2012/04/26/Samsung.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2012/04/26/Samsung.aspx

CLOSE