Extra Innings · Cards & Faces
Faces on the Gum Wrapper
Haelan Laboratories, Inc. v. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. (1953)
Charge: Inducing breach of contract and misappropriation of exclusive photo rights - rival gum maker used players' pictures licensed exclusively to another company (suit against the rival gum maker)Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second CircuitDocket: Cards & Faces
Can a company that buys a ballplayer's exclusive right to use his photograph enforce that right against a competitor?
The facts
A chewing gum company signed contracts with ballplayers for the exclusive right to use their photographs to sell gum. A rival gum maker then got some of the same players to grant it similar rights, sometimes through middlemen, and used their pictures anyway. The first company sued. The rival argued that a person's interest in his picture is only a personal privacy right that cannot be sold to anyone else.
You have the facts the court had. Guilty or not guilty? Call it in the game with your friends, then see what the court actually decided. Wrong call, you drink.
Citation: Haelan Laboratories, Inc. v. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., 202 F.2d 866 (2d Cir. 1953)
Read more at law.resource.org. The source reveals the outcome.