Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson won the Heisman Trophy for his incredible sophomore season at the University of Louisville in 2016. While Jackson earned many accolades for his performance that season, he now finds himself as a defendant in a federal lawsuit based on using some of the photos that captured his accomplishments that year.
A photographer named Richard Barnes has initiated his lawsuit against Jackson in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, including a laundry list of causes of action such as numerous instances of copyright infringement as well as an allegation that Jackson engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Barnes included Jackson’s company, Lamar Jackson Enterprises Incorporated, and a man named Ronald Dupont as defendants. The copyright-related claims revolve around an allegation that Jackson, or someone acting at his direction, copied, published, displayed, distributed, created derivative works of, modified, offered for sale and/or sold unauthorized copies of one or more of Barnes’ photographs on Jackson’s social media pages, his YouTube channel and at his official merchandise website Era8Apparel.com.
The photographs were captured by Barnes during a September 9, 2016, match between Louisville and Syracuse. Louisville won that game 62-28, and Jackson threw for 411 yards with one touchdown in the air and four touchdowns rushing the ball into the end zone. Barnes says that the photographs he took during that game were all posted to a news outlet searchable archive and that the pictures included a watermark on the bottom portion that explained the images were subject to copyright protection.
Barnes takes issue with the fact that these photographs were later used on Jackson’s social media accounts with neither consent nor attribution. Barnes is also upset that content from one of his photographs was used within Jackson’s filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register a stylized design mark for use with the sale of bags and apparel, and that Jackson or someone acting at his direction has actually sold goods bearing the mark. Dupont will need to defend against a claim that he, or someone acting at his direction, created jewelry that bears the same mark.
The RICO-related claims revolve around Jackson purportedly committing criminal copyright infringement through a pattern that poses a threat of continuity. A count for RICO conspiracy states that Dupont participated in the creation of the infringing jewelry in concert with, or under the direction of, Jackson.
Darren Heitner is the founder of Heitner Legal. He is the author of How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, published by the American Bar Association, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. You can reach him by email at heitner@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @DarrenHeitner.