There was a serious legal lawsuit sometimes back involving tiger woods and Rick Rush. The lawsuit was about a panting which depicted Tiger woods master’s victory back in the year 1997. In the lawsuit, Tiger Woods argued that the painting and its subsequent sale was a direct infringement on his trademark rights as a person and athlete.
Despite the argument contained in the Tiger Woods lawsuit and the likelihood of it being on point, Rush denied any wrong doing. On his part and in his response, Rick Rush claimed that his painting of Tiger Wood’s victory in 1997 was a duly and rightfully protected by the first amendment.
The Hearing of The Tiger Woods Augusta National Painting Lawsuit
The tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit drew a lot of attention and interest from the public owing to the fact that Tiger Woods was and remains one of the best athletes in the world. Through tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit, Tiger woods sought an undisclosed compensation for what he termed as a direct infringement on his trademark.
The case went to court as expected though the ruling that came out of it was nothing like what Tiger Woods had expected. The tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit was heard in the year 2003 by the sixth circuit court of appeal and in a shocking turn of events or outcome, the court sided with Rush. In its Ruling, the court termed the painting by Rush as an informational creative piece of art. The court further added that such a piece of act was protected by the first amendment and therefore not liable for trademark infringement.
This ruling by the court effectively brought the whole lawsuit to a conclusion. There are some details about the lawsuit that remain unknown to date. For instance, the nature of compensation that Tiger Woods requested for in the tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit is still not known. Two, it is not clear if Tiger Woods disputed this ruling by going to the court of appeal or elsewhere to seek redress to the lawsuit. As a matter of fact, there has not been any further details on the lawsuit since then.
The ruling on the tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit set a new precedence on the use of famous people and celebrities and their likeliness on art works. This means that some artists can use some images of celebrities and not get sued by simply sighting the use of the first amendment. While there have not been any new lawsuit of this nature coming up in recent times, the ruling in the tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit might have just opened an avenue for further disputes regarding trademark infringement emanating from artists using celebrity images and likeliness. For now, the tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit is concluded with no major update on the case.
Conclusion
The tiger woods augusta national painting lawsuit was one of a kind. The lawsuit lasted a long time and ended in Tiger Woods losing as the court sided with the accused who was an artist by the name Rish.