Madonna is being sued over the rights to use the 'Material Girl' name for the trendy juniors clothing line that she designed with daughter Lourdes. Apparel manufacturer LA Triumph slapped the superstar with a lawsuit Thursday, claiming that it had been marketing clothes under the 'Material Girl' brand since 1997.
'Our client and its predecessor have been continually selling similar clothes in similar retail outlets at similar price points under their Material Girl brand since at least 1997 and Madonna and her newfound company do not have the right to trade in the same space under this brand,' said an attorney for the company in a statement, alleging that their client faces 'a risk of being subsumed by Madonna’s profile, obvious worldwide notoriety' and massive marketing campaign.
Madonna’s much-buzzed-about Material Girl collection, fronted by Gossip Girl star Taylor Momsen, launched at Macy’s earlier this month. Madonna has not yet commented.
'Our client and its predecessor have been continually selling similar clothes in similar retail outlets at similar price points under their Material Girl brand since at least 1997 and Madonna and her newfound company do not have the right to trade in the same space under this brand,' said an attorney for the company in a statement, alleging that their client faces 'a risk of being subsumed by Madonna’s profile, obvious worldwide notoriety' and massive marketing campaign.
Madonna’s much-buzzed-about Material Girl collection, fronted by Gossip Girl star Taylor Momsen, launched at Macy’s earlier this month. Madonna has not yet commented.
From People.com
Also, as far as I'm aware, song titles aren't subject to copyright unlike song lyrics. So anyone can write a song called 'Yesterday', 'Imagine, or 'My Way'. This is why songwriters aren't in constant copyright litigation with each other over the many matching song titles out there. In fact, how many times has the phrase 'I love you' been used in a song? Songwriters and lyricists aren't in constant litigation over that either. Which shows how much of a song lyric has to be poached in order for a complaint to become viable. Starting a clothing line and filing to use a (uncopyrightable) song title as a trademark, sounds like a fair cop to me! I'll be watching this saga with interest. Does look like Madonna is on thin ice this time...
Posted by: C. Gordon | Thursday, 26 August 2010 at 02:23 AM
It depends who filed the term 'Material Girl' as a trademark first. The fact that it seems LA Triumph was able to file for the use of the term in business, is indicative of the fact that Madonna or her affiliates never filed for use of the term at all, and it is just a slang term brandished about when referring to Madonna. Madonna, it seems, has no legal right to use the term in business, and LA Triumph have known this since 1997, when they probably couldn't believe their luck when they first aquired the right to use the term. Sorry to sound like a solicitor, but it does sound like LA Triumph has the upper hand here.
Posted by: C. Gordon | Thursday, 26 August 2010 at 01:34 AM
Well, the song "Material girl" was part of the Like a Virgin album which was published in 1984...
1997 my ass! They just want publicity!
Posted by: rodrigo | Monday, 23 August 2010 at 08:11 AM
shouldn't madge sue this company back for using "material girl" since 1997?
Everybody knows who that one and only "material girl" is!
Posted by: Johnnie Xavier | Saturday, 21 August 2010 at 08:28 AM