Image source: Diego Maradona Facebook
Last Week, Diego Maradona, announced via his Facebook page that he was taking legal action against Pro Evolution Soccer's publishers, Konami, following the unauthorised use of his image and name in the latest edition of the popular football video game.
Konami swiftly responded with an official statement stressing that the player's image was being used appropriately on the basis of the license that they had obtained. According to reports, Konami signed a 3 year deal with FC Barcelona in 2016, allowing them to use the images of current and former players of the club in their video game.
What are Image Rights?
Image rights can be defined as the right of an individual to control the commercial use of his/her name, image and likeness - this may be through endorsement or sponsorship deals with various brands. Image rights will usually focus on the distinct characteristics of a person such as their name, image likeness, signature moves, voice, nickname, signature etc. In some jurisdictions, the law may allow a person to commercially exploit and protect his/her image whilst preventing any possible infringements.
Upon signing an employment contract, athletes (depending on their commercial value) will usually enter into some form of image rights agreement. This allows the club/employer (as well as their sponsors) to exploit the athlete's image for profit whilst agreeing on a figure for compensation, for such use, to the player. (This is a common occurrence in popular sports such as football).
In football, as a result of the common occurrence of image rights agreements, FIFA has set out its own recommendations as to how clubs and players, should agree their image right deals and what is seen as good practice, to avoid any confusion.[1]
