A new lawsuit against EA contends that the publisher “knowingly and intentionally” used NFL players’ likenesses in such a way that they would avoid having to pay licensing fees. Plaintiff Tony Davis, a former NFL running back, believes that EA misappropriated the retired players by using stats and positions, without using the names and uniform numbers of specific players. This matters little, as the game allows players to manually change the names of these “historic players.”
"The only significant detail that EA changes from the real-life retired NFL players is their jersey number," the suit says. "Despite EA's 'scrambling' of the retired NFL players' numbers, the games are designed so that consumers of the Madden NFL video game franchise will have no difficulty identifying who the 'historic' players are."
This legal battle is certainly not the first time EA has been implicated in a lawsuit involving retired players’ likenesses. Back in June 2009, Madden NFL was cited as part of a $28.1 million lawsuit that stated royalties were lost from likeness usage in the game. A later lawsuit filed by NFL player Jim Brown contended that his likeness was being used without his consent; that one was outright dismissed over 1st amendment rights.
EA has told IGN that they do not comment on pending litigation. A complete copy of the lawsuit can be found in .pdf here.
