Pele sues Samsung for $30m over TV advert

Pele sues Samsung for $30m over TV advert

Thursday, March 31, 2016 2:18 pm


Pele with Arsenal's Wilshere

Pele with Arsenal’s Wilshere

Football living legend, Edson Arante do Nascimento famously called Pele has sued Electronics giant,  Samsung asking for $30 million in damages.

Pele accuses Samsung of using a look – alike to advertise it’s latest ultra high definition TV sets.

The Korean firm had failed to  reach an agreement for the Brazilian football great’s image to be used.

Goal.com quoting a court filing obtained by Omnisport, said the ad includes a facial photo of a black man who “very closely resembles” Pele.

That photo serves as a backdrop for “a superimposed photograph of a Samsung television, which depicts a soccer match in which one of the players is seen making a modified bicycle or scissors-kick, perfected and famously used by Pele.”

Pele, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, has been retired since 1971. The lawsuit, filed March 16 in Chicago, states the majority of Pele’s income “is now derived from (his) ability to license his name and persona to commercial sponsors who wish to capitalize on Pele’s fame. As a business, the licensing of Pele’s identity is just as important to him now as his professional soccer playing career once was.”

The 75-year-old claims Samsung “never obtained the right to use Pele’s identity in any manner or in any format.” The unauthorized use of Pele’s likeness “falsely implies Pele’s endorsement” of Samsung’s products, the suit reads.

To represent him in the case, Pele has hired the same law firm retained by former NBA player Michael Jordan in his lawsuit against a grocery store chain that used Jordan’s name and No. 23 without permission in a 2009 ad to promote a coupon worth $2 off steaks. Jordan was awarded nearly $9 million in the case and later settled for an undisclosed amount.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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