NFL's Baltimore Ravens Logo: Why Hollywood Studios Care | The Hollywood Reporter

The dispute is a long-running one that involves an amateur artist named Frederick Bouchat who created a drawing that became the basis of the Ravens' original logo. For many years, Bouchat has been pursuing multiple claims that the professional football league has infringed his work -- and in November, a federal judge in Maryland practically screamed, "Never more!" finding that in many instances -- from use of the logo in historical documentaries on the NFL Network to use of the logo on the NFL's website -- that such uses were protected by the "fair use" doctrine. The ruling is now on appeal at the Fourth Circuit, and the MPAA is coming off of the sidelines to tell the judges about what horrors await in the fourth quarter should Bouchat's theory on "fair use" become accepted.