Madden NFL is an extremely popular video game produced by Electronic Arts (EA) that comes out in an updated edition every year. NFL legend Jim Brown has a problem with the game, though. A player in the Madden NFL game, which is not specifically identified as Brown, wears jersey number 37 (Brown wore 32), but the virtual player plays the same position as Brown (running back) and has almost identical statistics.Based on these similarities, Brown sued EA in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for various claims, including unfair competition based on false endorsement under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, and California state law claims for invasion of privacy and unlawful business practices.
In a October 16, 2009 opinion, the court dismissed Brown's false endorsement claim, and in doing so, concluded that the First Amendment provided a complete defense to false endorsement.
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