I worked for a retail company in Oregon for about 6 1/2 years. In July of 2009, I was fired for blogging on my Myspace page, which was not actually against any company policy. Regardless, the language I used in my blogging was pretty harsh, so I was fired for that reason. I lost my unemployment hearing because of an unusual law created in 2004 which didn't allow this one incident to be considered an "isolated incident of poor judgment."
By the end of the unemployment hearing process, I found myself greatly disliking the company's main office, as it quite literally fabricated documents and intentionally kept documents from me -- so much so that I had to hire an attorney to get everything I was owed from my own personal file.
I was recently watching the Rose Bowl on TV and saw a commercial from my former company that had me in it. I was seen pushing around a handtruck with soda on it. This footage was taken from about 4 years ago. 4 years ago, this company approached employees from a few local stores and told them that they were filming for a commercial to be aired during Christmas time of that year, as well as during an in-store advertisement that was shown on a single TV in many Oregon stores.
The original commercial aired only during the months of November and December in 2005, I believe. The in-store ad likewise was also only seen during this time. I agreed at the time, but did not sign anything, to have footage of me taken that could be used for both the commercial and in-store ad that was eventually seen in 2005.
However, I no longer work for the company. I no longer even like the company. I have already had, in the few days since the Rose Bowl, no less than a dozen people approach me and tell me they saw me during the commercial. Most of these were from people who were unaware I was no longer even working for the company for the past 7 months.
My question is, does my former employer have the right to continue to use my image to promote their store even though I no longer work there? Do I have an option of suing for the usage of my image or at the very least, do I have a remedy to keep them from using my image in a commercial in the future?
Thank you for your time and any additional information on this topic, or where I might even further research this topic, that you can provide.
By the end of the unemployment hearing process, I found myself greatly disliking the company's main office, as it quite literally fabricated documents and intentionally kept documents from me -- so much so that I had to hire an attorney to get everything I was owed from my own personal file.
I was recently watching the Rose Bowl on TV and saw a commercial from my former company that had me in it. I was seen pushing around a handtruck with soda on it. This footage was taken from about 4 years ago. 4 years ago, this company approached employees from a few local stores and told them that they were filming for a commercial to be aired during Christmas time of that year, as well as during an in-store advertisement that was shown on a single TV in many Oregon stores.
The original commercial aired only during the months of November and December in 2005, I believe. The in-store ad likewise was also only seen during this time. I agreed at the time, but did not sign anything, to have footage of me taken that could be used for both the commercial and in-store ad that was eventually seen in 2005.
However, I no longer work for the company. I no longer even like the company. I have already had, in the few days since the Rose Bowl, no less than a dozen people approach me and tell me they saw me during the commercial. Most of these were from people who were unaware I was no longer even working for the company for the past 7 months.
My question is, does my former employer have the right to continue to use my image to promote their store even though I no longer work there? Do I have an option of suing for the usage of my image or at the very least, do I have a remedy to keep them from using my image in a commercial in the future?
Thank you for your time and any additional information on this topic, or where I might even further research this topic, that you can provide.
