Michael Jordan is back on the witness stand in his lawsuit against the former grocery store accused of using his name without permission. Now, Jordan’s suing, and his case is expected to wrap up this week.
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The ad, which ran in a commemorative edition of Sports Illustrated, congratulated Jordan on his Hall of Fame induction and included a $2-off coupon above a photograph of a sizzling steak. In 2014, 11 years after he retired as an National Basketball Association player, he made 0 million from marketing of his image, his business manager, Curtis Polk, said in testimony on Monday. It’s for that reason that Jordan took the stand in federal court in Chicago on Tuesday (August 18) for his ongoing lawsuit against defunct supermarket chain Dominick’s for using his image without his permission in 2009. Dominick’s says that’s too high when it’s only his name that is used. When his attorney asked him why he brought the case, Jordan said it was “to protect my likeness, my image… something I value very preciously”.
Lawyers for Dominick’s, which was taken over by Safeway, said Jordan should receive $126,900 for the use of his name.
Asked after the jury’s decision whether he ever tried one of the steaks Dominick’s advertised, Jordan laughed and noted his own namesake steakhouse was a few blocks away.
Courtroom paperwork filed Thursday present closing arguments will start Friday.
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“I feel like it was a misuse of my likeness and name”, he said in court, according to ABC 7 Chicago. Jordan’s team said he would have never approved such a small licensing agreement and argued better comparisons are his multimillion-dollar deals with companies like Nike, Gatorade, and Hanes, according to the Chicago Tribune. Jordan testified that it is customary in Japan to pay even though it wasn’t legally necessary. It might be worth $10 million in some contexts, he said, but not necessarily in a one-off ad.
