Doug Somers' Lawsuit Against WWE Dismissed
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 03.08.2013
Former AWA wrestler loses in court...
- Doug Somers' lawsuit against WWE is no more. A judge in George ruled in favor of a motion by WWE to dismiss the case against them by Somers, the former AWA World Tag Team champion who filed suit against the company over their usage of AWA footage featuring him. Somers had argued that the material was used without his personal consent.
WWE's motion to dismiss had argued that Somers was a public person and that any material used by the company was both newsworthy and factual and thus fell under the First Amendment in the same way that a news broadcast or article would be protected. Somers had responded with a claim that WWE is not reporting on newsworthy events but rather is using the material as a promotion of themselvesl he had further argued that the stories weren't factual but were rather a "fictionalized narrative created by the Defendant" and that their use of his image on WWE.com were for "purposes of marketing and/or advertising its product."
WWE then replied and said that Somers had not mentioned any merchandising that used his name beyond DVDs, which had already been ruled to not fall under his "right to publicity" claim. The court has ruled in WWE's favor and further noted that WWE can recover legal costs from Somerson.
