Clemente family sues Puerto Rico over unpaid trademark use, seeks Supreme Court review

Roberto Clemente’s descendants maintain a trademark that they license sparingly for museums and a foundation honoring the Hall of Famer. In 2022, Puerto Rico introduced license plates featuring Clemente’s likeness, charging motorists a fee that yielded roughly $15 million for the government, while the family received no remuneration. The Beacon Center of Tennessee, representing the Clementes, filed a petition to the Supreme Court, contending that the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause obliges the state to pay for the use of any private property, tangible or not.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals previously held that only physical assets qualify for compensation, a stance the petitioners argue misreads Supreme Court rulings such as Horne v. Department of Agriculture. They warn that upholding that view could erode constitutional safeguards for trademarks, patents, copyrights and trade secrets across the United States. The case now offers the Court an opportunity to reaffirm that intangible property enjoys the same protection as tangible property under the Constitution.