A settlement has been reached in a 4 year class action suit that was filed against EA over the monopoly it holds in regards to using the real NFL team names, logo’s and likenesses. Or in other words a settlement has been reached regarding whether or not a company can sell it’s brand exclusively.
In the end EA has accepted punishment and if you have a copy of Madden you may be in line for a windfall of $1.95 or if you are really lucky and you have a PS2, Gamecube or original Xbox version then you could get $6.79
EA have also been told they cannot hold the exclusive rights for NCAA, college football, or even for Arena football (don’t even know what that is) but that they can have an exclusive contract with the NFL.
What this really means is that the current exclusive deals we see with FIFA and the world leagues is going to continue and that PES isn’t going to be receiving the rights anytime soon.
I personally think this is entirely logical and that any company can grant exclusivity to their brand marketing to anyone else. Or am I missing something here?
Last Updated: July 23, 2012