Rap mogul Jay-Z and Boston Red Sox baseball star David “Big Papi” Ortiz are reportedly still at each other’s necks in relation to a 2010 copyright lawsuit involving Hov’s 40/40 Club.According to reports, Jay and Ortiz have yet to bring their business settlement to a close.
Jay-Z and Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz will face off in court this month if they can’t resolve their cybersquatting dispute. After three hours of negotiations yesterday, Manhattan federal Judge Richard Berman said it was clear that reps for both men “do not have the authority to settle” the East Coast rivalry. Jay-Z is suing Big Papi for using a Web site to promote his Dominican Republic nightclub, Forty Forty, which he calls a rip-off of his famed 40/40 Club. Neither side would say how much Jay-Z wants, but Ortiz’s business manager, Mark Walker, called it “way too much.” (New York Post)
Last summer, the NY Post reported that Ortiz would rename his Forty Forty nightclub in the Dominican Republic.
After a judge threatened him with a default judgment, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz yesterday sent a lawyer to answer Jay-Z’s$5 million-plus trademark-infringement suit, which claims the player ripped off the name of the rap mogul’s famed 40/40 Club. And lawyer Philip Touitou told the judge that Ortiz wants to settle the suit, offering to stop calling the club he and his sister opened in the Dominican Republic “Forty Forty” and to pull down a Web site promoting the nightclub, fortyforty.net. Yankee fan Jay-Z’s West 25th Street club is named for the milestone of hitting 40 homers and stealing 40 bases. (New York Post)
Reports of the lawsuit landed online last April.
Jay-Z and Juan Perez own 40/40 Clubs in New York City, Atlantic City and Las Vegas and have plans to open further venues in Tokyo and Macau. They have accused Ortiz of trading on the fame, value and goodwill of their name through his club Forty/Forty and its website, www.fortyforty.net, which they say has caused their business “marketplace confusion and damage,” the lawsuit said. (ABC News)
The suit initially claimed Ortiz had prior knowledge of Jay’s club before naming his night spots.
“David Ortiz is fully aware of plaintiff’s Manhattan 40/40 Club, since he had been a patron there on several occasions long before he opened his infringing Forty/Forty Club,” said the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court. Ortiz had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. (Reuters)
