San Diego Chargers Eric Weddle files lawsuit against Bayer and Athlon Sports
Eric Weddle, safety for the San Diego Chargers, has filed a lawsuit against Athlon Sports, Bayer USA and Bayer AG, according to David Canter, his agent.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies involved used Weddle’s image from when he was a student at the University of Utah on promotional materials and Alka-Seltzer boxes. He announced the lawsuit through his Twitter account and then released a press statement.
The press release says:
"On April 19, 2011 our client Eric Weddle filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Bayer AG, Bayer USA, and Athlon Sports for federal statutory misappropriation of image, California statutory misappropriation of image, common law misappropriation of
image, conspiracy to misappropriate, unauthorized commercial use of likeness, unfair competition under the Lanham Act, false advertising, and civil action under California’s preservation and regulation of competition".
The statement goes on to say that the Weddle party was told that Weddle’s image was being used illegally in a campaign between Athlon Sports and Bayer on boxes of Alka-Seltzer, an antacid and pain reliever marketed by Bayer AG.
The national marketing campaign used a picture of Weddle from his days at Utah when he was an All-American. A general counsel representing Weddle then sent a letter to the defendants in the lawsuit telling them to remove all items that used Weddle’s image
illegally from all stores, including CVS’s, Walgreens, Wal-Mart’s and various other stores.
The lawsuit also said that the defendants used the same image that is featured on the Alka-Seltzer boxes in Athlon Sports’ college football magazine to promote it.
The lawsuit did, however, say that the defendants did not name Weddle in any of the advertisements but it was clear that it was Weddle’s image because of his jersey number, 32, which is the number he wore at Utah and is the same number that he has been wearing
in the National Football League (NFL) since he was drafted 37th overall in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Chargers.
The lawsuit clearly states that the defendants were not authorized at any time to use Weddle’s image in such a fashion and that the only course of action that the plaintiffs could take was to file a lawsuit with the Southern California District Court. Adam
Kenner is representing Weddle in the lawsuit.
In Weddle’s first season with the Chargers, he did not start in any games but participated in 15 of them, recording 53 tackles, one sack, six deflected passes and one interception.
His second season was arguably his best to date, with Weddle recording 127 tackles, one sack, five passes deflected and one interception after starting in all 16 games of the season.
In 2009, he started in all 13 games that he played in and recorded 82 tackles, 1.5 sacks, seven passes deflected and two interceptions returned for a total of 44 yards and one touchdown.
In 2010, Weddle started in all 16 games of the season and recorded 96 tackles, half a sack, ten deflected passes and two interceptions returned for a total of 64 yards and one touchdown.
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