Britney Sued In the Zone
Published June 11, 2004
Ms. Spears' unauthorized use of the trademark is in direct contradiction to her 2002 public service announcements warning people against music piracy and theft of intellectual property. In those announcements, Ms. Spears stated that downloading music from the Internet is the same as going into a CD store and stealing the CD. And a hypocrite too.
- Additionally, the defendants may be required to pay three times any judgment awarded if the Court determines that Ms. Spears' use of the IN THE ZONE trademark was willful. When Lite Breeze filed the lawsuit, it estimated that damages would be $10 million. Since that time, one of the defendants in the lawsuit, Signatures Network, has publicly stated that the first leg of Ms. Spears most recent concert tour has sales figures of more the $30 million. Ms. Spears is beginning the second leg of her U.S. concert tour on June 22, 2004 in Hartford, Connecticut. Accordingly, the damages sought in the lawsuit may be much higher than Lite Breeze originally estimated. [Music Industry News Network]
- Britney Sued In the Zone
- Published: June 11, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Business, Music: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
- Eric Olsen's BC Writer page
- Eric Olsen's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
An afterthought on this: in searching for Amazon products, there wer e all kinds of things with "in the zone" in their names, titles, etc. Maybe the phrase is too diluted for Lite Breeze to have a case.
I think I have to agree with your last omment, Eric. "In the zone" is more than a little cliche.
it's in such wide use, they may be able to argue it isn't trademarkable, but the other side of it is that Lit eBreeze is also in the concert biz, and that could be where genuine confusion may occur
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/16455)
And here I've been waiting for AutoZone to get on her case - you know, "Get in the zone, AutoZone!" This works just fine for me, however.
Pretty sad when a "performer" changes the title of the tour so it doesn't sound like she's inadvertently sponsored by or affiliated with one corporation . . . only to affiliate it with another corporation on purpose. But, you know, funny, too.