In March, not long after Lady Gaga released her Grammy-nominated album Mayhem, a company called Lost Surfboards sued to stop her from selling merch with that word on it. A judge has now ruled that Gaga can continue providing Mayhem merch to Little Monsters.
In its initial complaint, Lost Surfboards said that it had been selling surf clothing and equipment emblazoned with the word “Mayhem” since 1988, because the word is the nickname of one of the company’s co-founders. The company registered the word as a trademark in 2015. The company also claimed that the Mayhem logo Gaga was using on her merch is “a nearly identical design” to its own.
However, in a Monday ruling obtained by ABC News, Judge Fernando M. Olguin said that because Gaga’s use of “Mayhem” is “artistically relevant” and doesn’t “explicitly mislead consumers as to the source or content of the challenged work,” Lost Surfboards can’t proceed with its claim of trademark infringement.
What happens next? Gaga’s lawyers will likely file a motion to dismiss the claim, but meanwhile, the lawyer for Lost Surfboards indicated to Billboard that they might consider settling.
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