Detroit Lions Hit With Copyright Suit Over Jared Goff Photos

The Detroit Lions have been sued for copyright infringement after the NFL team allegedly posted three photos of quarterback Jared Goff on its social media profiles without permission or authorization.

Professional photographer Dennis Lee said the Lions copied and published his copyrighted photos without paying him a license fee in violation of federal copyright law.

A spokesperson for the Lions didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lee’s photos feature Goff when he was playing high school basketball and baseball between 2011 and 2012, said the complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California. Goff proceeded to play college football as quarterback for the Cal Golden Bears and then was drafted into NFL by the Los Angeles Rams.

“Because Goff became famous for playing football, photographs of him playing other sports in high school are rare and valuable,” the complaint said. Lee, who has photographed high school and college athletes for over two decades, is “believed to possess some of the only known professionally taken photos of Goff playing baseball and basketball in high school.”

Lee holds copyright registrations for all three photos, the complaint adds. He alleges the Lions “decided to use the Goff Photos commercially” on its official Instagram and X accounts without providing attribution or purchasing a license for commercial use.

“In order to obtain copies of the Goff Photos without the watermarks that appear across the photos on the MaxPreps website, a TDL agent purchased personal, noncommercial licenses for the photos via MaxPreps,” Lee said. “No one from TDL ever contacted MaxPreps to obtain a commercial license to use the Goff Photos, and Lee never granted such a license.”

Through purchasing the Goff photos under a non-commercial license and not using them for “‘personal and/or family use,’” the Lions also violated MaxPreps’ non-commercial image license agreement, the complaint alleges.

Lee seeks temporary and permanent injunctions barring the team from copying, displaying, distributing, or offering to sell Lee’s photos. The complaint also seeks monetary relief, including damages and any profits the team made from the allegedly unlawful use of Lee’s photos.

McArthur Law Firm PC represents Lee.

The case is Lee v. The Detroit Lions, Inc., C.D. Cal., No. 2:25-cv-07829, complaint filed 8/20/25.