Jamari Lawrence
2/25/15
Sports Law
Major Parties in this case:
The major parties in this case were the American Needle Inc. located in Buffalo Grove,
Illinois and the National Football league as well as Reebok International Ltd.
Facts of the case:
American Needle Inc. filed a law suit in an Illinois federal district court against the
National Football League or (“NFL”) and Reebok International Ltd. alleging that the teams
exclusive licensing agreement with Reebok violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. American
Needle argued that because individual NFL teams separately own their own team logos
and their trademarks, their collective agreement to authorize NFL Properties to award the
exclusive headwear license to Reebok, was in fact a conspiracy to restrict other vendors’
ability to obtain licenses for the teams’ intellectual property. The district court originally
disagreed and dismissed the case.
American Needle Inc, Argument:
American Needle Inc. argued that each of the teams in the NFL is an independent company
in a way that competes with the other teams. According to American Needle, NFL teams
“are separately owned and controlled profit-making enterprises,” each of which
independently owns intellectual property the that is licensed to the vendors. Though
American Needle recognizes that the teams must come to some agreements to be able to
schedule football games, it contends that the teams compete with one another both on and
off the field. Specifically, American Needle argues that a collective agreement between
these teams to grant an exclusive license is an illegal restriction on competition under the
Sherman Act.
National Football League Argument:
The National Football League argued that the Nation Football League is an organization
