Suit Over Use Of Facenda's Voice Likely Headed To Trial

John Facenda Jr., the son of late NFL announcer John Facenda, "appears headed to trial in his lawsuit over NFL Films' use of his father's voice in a program about" the making of EA Sports' "Madden 06," according to the CP.  Facenda "signed a contract shortly before he died in 1984 that banned the use of his [voice] for product endorsements."  A federal appeals court heard arguments Friday and "strongly hinted that a jury should decide whether the 22-minute film was a commercial or a documentary -- or perhaps, as one judge suggested, 'a documercial.'" U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro said of the program: "I put it on last night, and I have to tell you I thought it was hawking a product." The program "aired on the NFL Network nine times in the days leading up to the August 2006 release" of the game (CP, 6/7).

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