Basketball legend and billionaire, Michael Jordan, has just become quite a bit richer. A federal jury in Chicago decided that a supermarket chain in Chicago misappropriated the sports star’s name and number. Lawyers representing Jordan reportedly asked for $10 million from the retailer for the illegal usage of Jordan’s name. The attorneys for the retailer argued that, with all due respect, the sum requested to compensate for the one-time unauthorized use of the athlete’s name and number were beyond all common understanding of “fairness and common sense”.
According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, Federal Judge, Milton I. Shadur, the first judge to preside over the dispute before voluntarily removing himself from the case after Jordan’s team accused him of bias, reportedly agreed that the sum requested by Jordan’s legal team was “excessive”. However, after reviewing the facts of the case, the jurors decided that the now defunct retailer should pay the athlete $8.9 million for using his identity without his permission.
When asked for a reaction to the jury’s decision, according to the New York Daily News, the basketball Hall of Fame player answered: “This shows I will protect my name to the fullest […] It’s my name and I worked hard for it […] and I’m not just going to let someone take it.”
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