Lite Breeze, Inc., a San Diego based corporation specializing in athletic clothing and sports team uniforms under its brand name IN THE ZONE, has sued Britney Spears for trademark violation for $10 million in connection with her use of "In the Zone" for her latest CD title and other marketing purposes:
- The lawsuit was filed in February, 2004; however Ms. Spears did not accept service of the legal papers until May, 2004. Although Lite Breeze has been in communication with Ms. Spears' attorney since February, Ms. Spears refused to give her attorney the authority to accept service of the legal papers. Ms. Spears avoided numerous attempts to serve her the legal papers over the past several months. Finally, Ms. Spears agreed to accept service of the papers if Lite Breeze agreed to postpone the taking of her deposition for six months. Ms. Spears and the other defendants must file their answers to the allegations by June 14, 2004.
Since receiving a cease and desist letter from Lite Breeze requesting that Ms. Spears and the other defendants stop using its IN THE ZONE trademark, the Spears camp has allegedly pulled from sale all t-shirts using the IN THE ZONE trademark. Additionally, Lite Breeze suspects that the name of Ms. Spears' current worldwide concert tour was changed from "Britney Spears In The Zone 2004 Tour" to "The Onyx Hotel Tour" after the defendants discovered Lite Breeze's trademark.
....Rodd Garner, President of Lite Breeze, said "We have spent over 12 years building name recognition and brand loyalty with the IN THE ZONE and THE ZONE trademark. IN THE ZONE is as wholesome and All-American as hotdogs and apple pie. We are associated with sporting and musical events throughout the country. By releasing her CD entitled "In The Zone" and its promotional tour, now entitled "The Oynx Hotel Tour", Ms. Spears has taken Lite Breeze's brand and equated it with what Rolling Stone Magazine has stated 'offers strip-club, 1-900 sex, accommodating and hollow.'"
Oooh, burn.
- Mr. Garner stated that the public is likely to be confused about the origin of goods associated with the IN THE ZONE trademark. Either the public will believe that Lite Breeze has licensed Ms. Spears' use of the trademark or the public will believe the opposite - that Ms. Spears owns the rights to IN THE ZONE and that Lite Breeze has received a license from Ms. Spears. Either option is unacceptable to Mr. Garner who has made clear that the image presented by Ms. Spears in connection with her unauthorized use of trademark is aimed at the same demographic as IN THE ZONE's customers and her use of the mark does not represent the values, morals and ethics of IN THE ZONE and Lite Breeze.
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Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
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.
2 - Eric Olsen
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.
3 - Kevin
I think I have to agree with your last omment, Eric. "In the zone" is more than a little cliche.
4 - Eric Olsen
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