Facenda v. N.F.L. Films, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
542 F.3d 1007 (2008)
John Facenda was a well-known broadcaster whose voice narrated films for NFL Films (defendant), which owned the copyrights to those recordings. Before he died in 1984, Facenda signed a release letting NFL Films use his voice recordings forever, but expressly not for any product or service endorsement. In 2005, NFL Films used clips of Facenda's voice in a promotional video for a video game. Facenda's estate (plaintiff) sued, claiming this violated Facenda's right of publicity under state law. NFL Films argued its federal copyright, which includes the right to make derivative works, preempted that state-law claim. The district court granted summary judgment to the estate, and NFL Films appealed.
Whether federal copyright law preempts a state right-of-publicity claim when the copyright owner uses the plaintiff's identity in a way that exceeds the scope of what the plaintiff originally agreed to.