Circle-R for the G-Unit

Right out of the Smoking Gun:

Back in the day when young drug dealer 50 Cent had a beef, he’d settle it gangsta style. But the old days are long gone and now rapper Curtis Jackson has trademark attorneys do his dirty work for him. In the below complaint filed Friday in Pennsylvania federal court, 50 accuses a Philadelphia area car dealer of using a newspaper ad with a picture of him and the tagline “JUST LIKE 50 SAYS!” to shill Dodge Magnums. The 30-year-old artist, who is described in the filing as “known for his good looks, ‘gangsta’ image and hard knocks success story” is seeking more than $1 million for the trademark hijacking.

UPDATE:  I suppose this was settled, but I couldn’t find anything about it. No surprise — the press reports the filing of the lawsuits but seldom their resolution. It was certainly settled, therefore.  But here’s a good contemporaneous (2005!) post by Eric Goldman actually applying some analysis to the issue, and concluding:

[A]lthough trademark law may not apply to its behavior, I have a tip for the Gary Barbera dealership: lay off using photos of rappers in your ads for a while. They seem to get you into trouble…and into court!

Originally posted 2005-08-30 11:43:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter