Beyonce, Rihanna, Jay Z, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams Sue French Company ElevenParis
Don’t look for these t-shirts, you can’t buy them anymore, they have disappeared! They were sold by the French fashion company ElevenParis, but Beyonce, Rihanna, Jay Z, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams have all filed a complaint in New York federal court over use of their names and images on t-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts, hats, backpacks and cell phone cases.
The brand was selling clothes with slogans such as ‘Kanye is my Homie’, ‘Pharrell is my Brotha’ or featuring nicknames like Jay Z’s ‘Hova’, Beyonce’s ‘Cayonce’, or even lyrics and the Hollywood Reporter is saying that The lawsuit ‘asserts a whopping 58 claims’.
However, it seems a bit more complicated than it first appears as it is not just a plain case of violation of publicity rights, or trademark infringement. It turns out that Beyonce had a deal with ElevenParis, a secret deal. However the lawsuit claims that ElevenParis ‘breached the terms and conditions’, received warnings and a cease and desist, but continued to sell its merchandize… The whole lawsuit is actually visible here, and I can’t believe there are 96 pages of this thing!
On Wednesday the company released this statement: ‘ElevenParis is determined to find a fair and balanced agreement with them and their advisers.’
Yeah, good luck with that! It sounds like another greedy move from these rich people who can’t stand to not make a buck of a few t-shirts. I don’t know, I see unauthorized shirts all the time, it doesn’t mean that people sue all the time… but what did you expect, Beyonce even went after someone selling Bey cups on Etsy!! She is like the Hitler of the image copyright, no wonder she is so rich! And of course she and her friends may win once again.
