Rentmeester v. Nike, Inc.
In 1984, Nike signed a $2.5 million dollar shoe endorsement with then NBA rookie, Michael Jordan. What shortly became a household name, Air Jordan’s exceeded Nike’s expectations by generating over $100 million dollars in its first year on the market. Since its launch, Air Jordan’s has gone through a series of brand changes, but it was the development of the infamous Air Jordan’s III logo or the “jumpman” silhouette, that inaugurated Air Jordan’s as one of the most iconic brands in the world. The addition of the “jumpman” logo increased Nike’s revenue generation to over $1 billion dollars in 1987.
Thirty years later, a New York photographer by the name of Jacobus Rentmeester, filed a complaint in Oregon’s federal