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Case file s1695 · Music and sport · 2016
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2016
Muhammad Ali: Muhammad Ali NYWTS
Muhammad Ali. Ira Rosenberg. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
3 June 2016; Fox suit settled July 2018
Place
Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
Field
boxer · Sport on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law (Illinois Right of Publicity Act; federal Lanham Act) · Common law
Historical event
Fox's broadcast of Super Bowl LI, February 2017
Religion
Muhammad Ali: Muslim, Protestant and Anglican (recorded as Nation of Islam, Sunni Islam on Wikidata; 20th-century Muslims, 21st-century Muslims, African-American Sunni Muslims on Wikipedia)
Music and sportNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Muhammad Ali's company sued Fox for more than $30 million over a 3-minute Super Bowl LI promotional video using his image, and Fox settled

Muhammad Ali was taken to hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, with a respiratory illness on 2 June 2016 and died the next day, aged 74. Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC, owned by Authentic Brands Group and the Muhammad Ali Family Trust, holds his trademarks, copyrights and right of publicity. In February 2017 Fox broadcast Super Bowl LI to an estimated audience of over 111 million. Immediately before the game it aired a 3-minute promotional video titled "The Greatest". A narrator says "Walk with me" over film of Ali, and the second half moves to NFL players including Joe Montana, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. The video ends with the Super Bowl LI logo and a screen with Ali's name and the years of his birth and death. On 10 October 2017 Muhammad Ali Enterprises sued Fox Broadcasting Company in federal court in Chicago (Northern District of Illinois, case 1:17-cv-07273). The complaint alleges that Fox never requested or received permission, that the video falsely implied Ali's endorsement in breach of the Lanham Act, and that it violated the Illinois Right of Publicity Act. It says Fox could have sold the 3 minutes to other advertisers for $30 million and asks for damages above $30 million, trebled, plus punitive damages and an order to delete every copy of the video. Fox argued that the suit threatened free expression. In July 2018 Fox and Muhammad Ali Enterprises settled. The amount was not disclosed.

What the law took from it

Publicity rights that pass to a company after death can be enforced against a broadcaster that builds its own promotion around the star's image without a licence.

Sources
  1. rightofpublicityroadmap.comPress
  2. newschannel5.comPress
  3. businessinsurance.comPress
  4. businessinsurance.comPress
  5. worldipreview.comPress
  6. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Muhammad Ali's company sued Fox for more than $30 million over a 3-minute Super Bowl LI promotional video using his image, and Fox settled,” story s1695, https://www.celebrity.estate/muhammad-ali-2016, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States