Pierre Garcon sues FanDuel on behalf of players

— -- Washington Redskins wide receiver Pierre Garcon is leading a class-action lawsuit for NFL players against daily fantasy site FanDuel, his law firms announced Friday.

Garcon is suing for misuse of players' names and likenesses, exploiting them without proper licenses or permissions. The lawsuit was filed in Maryland.

"FanDuel has taken the liberty to engage in these actions without my consent and without proper licensing rights," Garcon said in a statement. "As a result of these activities, FanDuel daily fantasy contests have shown increasing revenues leading to large profits."

Garcon could have a hard time making his case. Using stats alone for fantasy purposes is no different from putting players' names in a box score. In NBA v. Motorola and Stats Inc., a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in 1997 that the federal copyright statute does not allow for the ownership of data.

FanDuel competitor DraftKings is not named in the suit. DraftKings has a marketing relationship with the NFL Players Association, which allows the company to put players such as Rob Gronkowski in its advertising. DraftKings does not pay the NFL or the NFLPA for the use of statistics.

Garcon said he would not comment on the lawsuit further and referred questions to agent Brad Cicala.

ESPN's Darren Rovell contributed to this report.