2012 has been a year of high-profile law-suits, which include but is not limited to the Apple and Samsung lawsuit as well as the ongoing legal battle between Electronic Arts (EA) and Zynga.
Two more companies have drawn daggers at each other, this time the gaming industry giant Sony filing a law-suit against the tire manufacturer Bridgestone.
The troubled stemmed following the tire manufacturer’s advertisement that featured Jerry Lambert in the role of a Bridgestone engineer playing Mario Kart Wii.
Sony was not too happy to see Lambert using the product of its main competitor in the commercial because the actor had been featured in plenty of Sony commercials over the past-few years as Kevin Butler.
Even though Lambert’s contract with Sony is over, the company is taking a stand against him appearing in Bridgestone’s commercial as Kevin Butler, a character that is associated with Sony products.
According to court documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Bridgestone has admitted that while the actor did appear in their commercial, he did not come as Kevin Butler as is being implied by Sony.
As the actor is the same, there is naturally strong physical resemblance between the two characters, but Sony is not expected to claim ownership of the very face of the man who has been portraying the role of a character who has pretty much become a Trademark of Sony over the years.
“Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer,” Bridgestone said. “Bridgestone denies that ‘Kevin Butler’ appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial.”
Sony, however, is convinced that the ad did feature Kevin Butler and therefore is taking the tire manufacturer to court on account of misrepresentation of the company’s intellectual property and consequently causing damages.
“We invested significant resources in bringing the Kevin Butler character to life, and he’s become an iconic personality directly associated with PlayStation products over the years,” Sony said in a statement. “Use of the Kevin Butler character to sell products other than those from PlayStation misappropriates Sony’s intellectual property, creates confusion in the market, and causes damage to Sony.”
Bridgestone is all set to fight the suit and proving in court that there is no resemblance between Lambert’s character in their commercial and Sony’s Kevin Butler character.
If Sony is able to somehow prove that Bridgestone is indeed guilty of Trademark Infringement and indeed caused damages to Sony by portraying Kevin Butler playing a Wii-exclusive game, somewhat promoting it, then the tire manufacturer will surely find itself paying big money in damages.
The commercial that triggered this controversy has already been pulled and by the looks of it, it does not look like it would be coming back on air anytime soon.
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