NEW YORK JETS LOGO CREATOR SUES TEAM, NFL ... Pay Me For My Design!!!

[TBJ]

Jim Pons -- the man who created one of the New York Jets' logos -- is now suing the team and the NFL ... demanding he be paid for their use of his design.

Pons filed the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ Sports, in New York on Monday ... claiming he made the now-iconic emblem way back in the 1970s, after he had been working for the team as a film and video director.

Pons says in '78, the Jets were looking for a redesign -- and when he submitted his logo that featured a jet plane above the letters "E-T-S" ... team officials loved it, and began using it.

NY ended up slapping it on its uniforms until 1997, when it switched things up. But, in 2022, the franchise revealed it was going back to Pons' design part-time. In early 2024, the org. announced it'd be using the design full-time going forward.

Initially, Pons -- a former rock 'n roll musician -- was stoked over it all ... even sitting down this past spring with the team for a feature that explained how he came up with the imagery.

In the special, Pons was seen smiling as he reflected on things.

However, in his suit, Pons said he was anything but pleased with the Jets and the NFL -- believing he owns the mark which he says he created outside of the scope of his job with the team ... so now he thinks they owe him some serious compensation for his work.

Pons claims the team and the league are making millions off of it ... and it's clear he wants his share.

The 81-year-old is suing for unspecified damages. He's also asking a judge to order the cancelation of the Jets' trademark of his logo. In addition, he wants a judge to rule that NY can no longer use his logo on their uniforms and merch ... at least not without his consent and compensation.

https://www.tmz.com/2024/07/01/new-york-jets-logo-creator-sues-team-nfl-wants-payment-for-design/

[Integrity28]

Same thing happened to me when I designed the JI logo. 🤣

[TBJ]

8 minutes ago, Integrity28 said:

Same thing happened to me when I designed the JI logo. 🤣

Pay the man!

Not you Ape.

[Dunnie]

This happens all the time .. Reminds me of a story my character design instructor shared w me. There was an artist that used to do cartoon drawings for kids on the Santa Monica pier. One day Don Bluth passes by and asks him to draw a cute mouse with a little bit of a spunky attitude as an immigrant... Pays the guy $500... Two years later An American Tale gets nationwide release making $75 ($200m today) million profit in the 80s and Fievel the mouse goes down in history as an iconic animated character.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Maynard13]

Pay for a retreat for the old timer with Rodgers and all the Ayahuasca he can drink. 

[Joe W. Namath]

Isnt there a statute of limitations on this?  If he was to be compensated, it should have been long ago.

[Bleedin Green]

Considering it's 50 years later, he was a team employee at the time which wildly hurts his argument, and would still have a difficult time even proving the legitimacy of his claim independent of that, there's absolutely nothing to this other than a hope for a cash grab coming from an out-of-court settlement the Jets might be willing to throw out there lower than their legal costs.

[Doggin94it]

Pretty straightforward laches/license case - he gave it to them to use, for free, way back when, and didn't say a word about payment. He should've - back then. Now? He's basically licensed it to them for free or transferred ownership to them. He's not (legally) entitled to a dime, not 46 years later

[Jet_Engine1]

1 hour ago, Doggin94it said:

Pretty straightforward laches/license case - he gave it to them to use, for free, way back when, and didn't say a word about payment. He should've - back then. Now? He's basically licensed it to them for free or transferred ownership to them. He's not (legally) entitled to a dime, not 46 years later

Sounds like some chaser saw the video finally crediting the guy in a "feel good" story and saw an angle. If it was brought up in 1977 or so he may have had a case.

 

On a (un)related note, George Lucas being a sh*tbag and suing Glen Larson back in 1978 because Lucas thought he owned Space and Lasers killed the Original Battlestar Galactica. 8 year old me was CRUSHED when it was canceled (BSG 1980 Just made things worse lol).

 

Disney defiling the corpse of Star Wars is just karma. 

[JetsFanatic]

Wow he changed his toon!! He was so happy they went back to his design. I guess he saw that $4 billion dollar award!!!

[The Crusher]

8 hours ago, Integrity28 said:

Same thing happened to me when I designed the JI logo. 🤣

OMG, that was my exact first thought. Plus weren’t you banned  right after that fur mocking DWC? Haha

[The Crusher]

7 hours ago, Bleedin Green said:

Considering it's 50 years later, he was a team employee at the time which wildly hurts his argument, and would still have a difficult time even proving the legitimacy of his claim independent of that, there's absolutely nothing to this other than a hope for a cash grab coming from an out-of-court settlement the Jets might be willing to throw out there lower than their legal costs.

They should offer to pay him per championship since he drew it. 

[Matt39]

[Integrity28]

11 minutes ago, The Crusher said:

OMG, that was my exact first thought. Plus weren’t you banned  right after that fur mocking DWC? Haha

Yea. The logo was traded for premium membership. Once banned, I invoiced them. Then came the threats. Man babies. 

[sourceworx]

9 hours ago, Integrity28 said:

Same thing happened to me when I designed the JI logo. 🤣

Why am I not shocked by this?

[sourceworx]

29 minutes ago, The Crusher said:

OMG, that was my exact first thought. Plus weren’t you banned  right after that fur mocking DWC? Haha

Or this?

[sourceworx]

16 minutes ago, Integrity28 said:

Yea. The logo was traded for premium membership. Once banned, I invoiced them. Then came the threats. Man babies. 

What did he do, threaten to beat you up?

[Jet Nut]

Hope he got paid for “Hey Joe”.  
Hendrix turned that into millions of $s

[Claymation]

I look forward to Mike Florio's take and how Aaron Rodgers is the mastermind behind stiffing this gentlemen out of his $10,000 dollar design. He worked for the team and any intellectual property (IP) created by him while he was employed by the Jets are now the NY Jets IP. Is Aaron's case on kicking this dog to the curb.

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

SAME OLD JETS

[The Crusher]

27 minutes ago, Integrity28 said:

Yea. The logo was traded for premium membership. Once banned, I invoiced them. Then came the threats. Man babies. 

Really? All that over two dozen banana nut pancakes and some syrup? For a professionally done logo! Bunch of dicks!! 

[The Crusher]

11 minutes ago, sourceworx said:

What did he do, threaten to beat you up?

Add to the list of empty promises of  physicality that JI became famous for as it burned to the ground. 

[PFSIKH]

Is this akin to the Cubs' curse of the bill goat?  It took them 71 years to overcome that curse.  

[GKnight83]

I have news for you buddy - you work for the Jets at the time of creation it is likely to be considered property of the NYJ.

 

[Dunnie]

Sounds like some chaser saw the video finally crediting the guy in a "feel good" story and saw an angle. If it was brought up in 1977 or so he may have had a case.
 
On a (un)related note, George Lucas being a sh*tbag and suing Glen Larson back in 1978 because Lucas thought he owned Space and Lasers killed the Original Battlestar Galactica. 8 year old me was CRUSHED when it was canceled (BSG 1980 Just made things worse lol).
 
Disney defiling the corpse of Star Wars is just karma. 

Yeah but the re-birthed series kicked ass.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Dcat]

10 hours ago, Dunnie said:

This happens all the time .. Reminds me of a story my character design instructor shared w me. There was an artist that used to do cartoon drawings for kids on the Santa Monica pier. One day Don Bluth passes by and asks him to draw a cute mouse with a little bit of a spunky attitude as an immigrant... Pays the guy $500... Two years later An American Tale gets nationwide release making $75 ($200m today) million profit in the 80s and Fievel the mouse goes down in history as an iconic animated character.

Happens in the world of art as well.  An early Halloween painting by my wife was copied and sells regularly on apparel and many other items from China.  We've seen it on the internet all over for 2 decades now. 

[Claymation]

1 hour ago, The Crusher said:

Really? All that over two dozen banana nut pancakes and some syrup? For a professionally done logo! Bunch of dicks!! 

You piqued my interest, What type of Syrup?

[JetsFanatic]

10 hours ago, Integrity28 said:

Same thing happened to me when I designed the JI logo. 🤣

Did you also go through the same vigorous interview process?

[freestater]

9 hours ago, Doggin94it said:

Pretty straightforward laches/license case - he gave it to them to use, for free, way back when, and didn't say a word about payment. He should've - back then. Now? He's basically licensed it to them for free or transferred ownership to them. He's not (legally) entitled to a dime, not 46 years later

Hasn't there been legislation that put a 25 yr expiration on this sort of creative property? I wonder if it relates to the law that led to the Friday the 13th litigation that's held up any new projects since 09. Victor Miller sued Sean Cunningham over rights to the whole Jason Voorhees story. 

[ARodJetsFan]

2 hours ago, JetsFanatic said:

Wow he changed his toon!! He was so happy they went back to his design. I guess he saw that $4 billion dollar award!!!

Money will almost always, bring out the absolute worst in people.

It's human nature.

[Greensleeves]

Similar thing happened with Nike - they paid a college design student $35 in 1971. In 1983 they gave her 500 shares of the company, which, at .25 per didn't amount to much. It split a bunch of times so she now has over 3500 shares and it was valued 2 years ago at about 3.5 million dollars. They saw that her work was essential to the company and made an effort to do something extra. I think the Jets should pay the guy something in good faith. It's not right that they can make millions off of merchandising with this guys work and not give him a dime, especially when $50,000 is a drop in the bucket for them. It will say a lot about the company/team with how they handle this. The logo clearly strikes a chord with Jets fans and we were jumping at the chance to buy the 'legacy' stuff.

[The Crusher]

46 minutes ago, Claymation said:

You piqued my interest, What type of Syrup?

You get to pick from three! One has codeine, don’t pick that one,

[Integrity28]

2 hours ago, sourceworx said:

What did he do, threaten to beat you up?

He said I was trying to strong arm him to get out if my permaban. I said if he cannot provide my compensation as a JI VIP membership, then he needed to compensate me in cash. He went cuckoo. 

[freestater]

4 minutes ago, Integrity28 said:

He went cuckoo

Debatable. He was already. 

[Doggin94it]

2 hours ago, Claymation said:

I look forward to Mike Florio's take and how Aaron Rodgers is the mastermind behind stiffing this gentlemen out of his $10,000 dollar design. He worked for the team and any intellectual property (IP) created by him while he was employed by the Jets are now the NY Jets IP. Is Aaron's case on kicking this dog to the curb.

That's not actually how this works, unless "creating the logo" was part of his job duties. If you design a new logo for McDonalds in your spare time while you also have a job flipping burgers for them, it's yours, not theirs. If they want to use it, they need to license it from you

1 hour ago, Dcat said:

Happens in the world of art as well.  An early Halloween painting by my wife was copied and sells regularly on apparel and many other items from China.  We've seen it on the internet all over for 2 decades now. 

You know that you can send a C&D or a DMCA takedown notice about that if she registers the copyright, right?

1 hour ago, freestater said:

Hasn't there been legislation that put a 25 yr expiration on this sort of creative property? I wonder if it relates to the law that led to the Friday the 13th litigation that's held up any new projects since 09. Victor Miller sued Sean Cunningham over rights to the whole Jason Voorhees story. 

Since 1978, the law has allowed an author to terminate a copyright license in the 35th year after the license was entered. We're well past that.