Puerto Rican legend Roberto Clemente spent 18 seasons with Pittsburgh, becoming one of baseball’s greatest icons.
In 2022, the US territory issued souvenir license plates featuring the baseball star without his sons’ consent, causing a dispute.
The family’s legal representatives intend to continue pursuing the claims that remain before the lower courts, according to Reuters. The family’s lawyers argued before the Supreme Court that the lower courts had weakened constitutional safeguards by treating trademark rights differently from physical property, according to Reuters and ESPN. A sporting legend’s legacy can live far beyond the stadium, but deciding who controls that legacy can become a complicated legal battle. More than half a century after Roberto Clemente’s death, his name and image have become the subject of a dispute between his family and his native Puerto Rico. Now, the US Supreme Court ‘s refusal to hear their appeal has left the family’s fight over trademark rights and compensation unresolved. Roberto Clemente Jr, Luis Roberto Clemente and Roberto Enrique Clemente had challenged the programme, arguing that the government had appropriated trademark rights belonging to the family. Their lawsuit, filed alongside two companies they own that work to protect Clemente’s brand and philanthropic legacy, sought to prevent future use of his image on vehicle plates. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal without providing an explanation. However, the decision does not resolve every aspect of the wider dispute. A federal district court in San Juan, presided over by Judge Gina Méndez-Miró, dismissed the family’s case. The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently upheld parts of that decision, rejecting the argument that Puerto Rico’s use of the trademarks constituted an unconstitutional taking.
How the commemorative plates sparked a dispute
The family subsequently filed a lawsuit, arguing that the unauthorised commercial use of Clemente’s identity amounted to a government taking of private property under the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.