Soccer legend Pele has filed a suit in a US federal court in Chicago against Samsung for its unauthorized use of his identity in an advertisement.
The attorney hired by the firm handling Pele’s endorsements, confirmed the filing of suit seeking fair compensation from Samsung to prevent future unauthorized uses.
According to the suit, Samsung used the photo of a man resembling Pele for a newspaper ad that appeared in October last year in The New York Times. Pele was negotiating with Samsung in late 2013 but Samsung pulled out of the negotiations at the last minute and never obtained the rights to use his identity in any manner.
The suit claims that the advertisement harms the name of the 75-year-old Pele, who endorses top international firms like Volkswagen, Subway and Emirates airline.
Samsung is yet to respond to this suit.