Nike yesterday defeated an appeal by photographer Jacobus Rentmeester, who "accused the sportswear company of ripping off his iconic photo" of Michael Jordan, and "using it to create its silhouetted 'Jumpman' logo," according to Jonathan Stempel of REUTERS. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision said that Rentmeester "did not show that Nike misappropriated" his '84 photo of Jordan, which had been "used in a Life magazine feature" on that year's L.A. Olympics. Rentmeester's photo "depicted Jordan ... airborne in a grassy knoll featuring a basketball hoop as a prop, with his left arm extended upward and a basketball in hand." Nike several months later "commissioned a similarly posed photo but used Chicago's skyline as background" because Jordan played for the Bulls. Nike "used that photo to market Air Jordan sneakers," and in '87 to "create the Jumpman logo." Judge Paul Watford wrote that the photos "were not substantially similar" because of differences in setting, lighting and other elements. Watford said that this "meant the logo was also acceptable, and added that Jordan's pose by itself could not be copyrighted" (REUTERS, 2/27).
