Pele sues Samsung for $30m

Pele

Brazilian soccer legend, Pele has sued South Korean electronics giant Samsung for $30 million for rights infringement.

Pele, 75, who filed the lawsuit against Samsung in the US city of Chicago earlier this month, claimed the electronics group improperly used a lookalike in an advertisement to promote its ultra high-definition TV sets in October last year.

Although the advertisement did not mention Pele by name, it featured a large photograph of an elderly black man who “very closely resembles” him. There was also a smaller picture of a white football player performing a “modified bicycle of scissors-kick, perfected and famously used by Pele”, the complaint said.

Pele, whose full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, is considered to be the best player of all time. He played for Brazil's victorious World Cup winning teams of 1958, 1962 and 1970, scoring in the finals of 1958 and 1970.

Pele said Samsung wanted him to endorse their products in 2013 but pulled out of negotiations at the last minute and “never obtained the right to use Pele’s identity in any manner or in any format”.

The advert, he said, will confuse consumers and hurt the value of Pele’s endorsement rights. Since his retirement in the 1970s, the football icon has been relying on endorsements for much of his income. He has deals with several companies such as Volkswagen, Subway, Emirates and Procter & Gamble.

According to Bloomberg Business, Pele earned $25 million from endorsements in 2014, when Brazil hosted the World Cup. His value is likely to rise further this year with the Olympic Games being held in Rio de Janeiro.

The lawsuit was filed by Pele IP Ownership LLC, which owns the Brazilian’s trademark and publicity rights. As well as seeking compensation, his legal team say they also want to prevent future unapproved uses of his image.

Pele's lawyer Frederick Sperling has also represented the legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan. He helped Jordan win $8.9 million in a case against the former Dominick's Finer Foods over an unauthorised use of his identity in an advertisement in Sports Illustrated magazine.

“The goal is to obtain fair compensation for the authorised use of Pele’s identity and to prevent future unauthorised uses,” Sperling said.

Chung Sun-seop, editor of Chaebul.com, a website that analyses South Korean conglomerates, has criticised Samsung for the advert.

“The company is sacrificing big things like its global image for small financial gains,” he said.