There's more money than you think in that tattoo

Tattoo artists take note! You have a new potential income stream: lawsuits. Or at least that's the take-away AdFreak has gotten from the suit filed earlier this week by Matthew Reed, a Portland, Oreg. tattoo artist, who is suing Nike, the Detroit Pistons' Rasheed Wallace, and agency Weiden [sic] + Kennedy, according to these court documents. Reed created an Egyptian-style tattoo (at left) for Wallace—when he was a Portland Trailblazer—that later was prominently featured in a Nike ad.

Reed claims the focus on Wallace's tattoo in the ad constitutes copyright infringement. He's seeking, among other things, what he sees as his "share of the revenue realized by Mr. Wallace for his exploitation of the co-owned artwork." Hmmm. Wonder how you'd calculate that?

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

February 18, 2005 | Permalink