The Smoking Gun is reporting that New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady is suing Yahoo!
Tom Brady … claims that the online giant improperly used his image to promote its fantasy football game.
Is there an Internet recruiting spin on this?
Hmm, if a job board uses an employer’s brand in a pay-per-click ad or creates a page featuring an employer who is not a client, does that employer have the grounds to take similar legal action?
Brady alleges that Yahoo!’s use of his image connotes a false endorsement … .
Not for me to decide, but it would make for some nice buzz in our industry. If you’re an employer, do a search on your company name + “jobs” on Google and see what you find.
You just might be getting “Brady’d” … minus the three Super Bowl rings, of course.
Popularity: 2% [?]
December 7th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
There’s a huge difference between using Tom Brady’s photo or other likeness and his name. He’s a public figure so you can refer to him as much as you want and pretty much however you want, but you need his permission to use his photo in most circumstances. Similarly, we can refer to Monster.com, Careerbuilder, Jobster, CollegeRecruiter.com (pardon the plug) as much as we want, but we need their permission to use their logos in most circumstances.
– Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com