Since when can you be sued for using a font? The Vandals, an L.A. based punk band, learned the answer to this question when they parodied Variety’s iconic logo for their 2004 album “Hollywood Potato Chip.” The word Variety, or a newspaper image was nowhere to be found. The Vandals weren’t mocking Variety in any way. The album cover merely used a font similar to Variety’s logo, as an example of Hollywood-ism. Perhaps if they had used the Hollywood sign’s Helvetica font instead, they might have got away with it. But Variety sent them a cease-and-desist letter claiming trademark infringement.
At their own expense, the Vandals had the cover replaced with one that didn’t use the offending font. Everything was hunky-dory until March 24th when the Vandals were hit with a lawsuit filed in the Delaware courts. According to The Wrap, Henry Horbaczewski, counsel for Variety’s owner said: “We sued them, and they accepted a settlement agreement in which they promised to stop misusing our mark, because we wanted to stop the misuse, not their money. They then ignored their agreement.”
Here’s the problem, the Vandals changed the art. But copies of the old cover art are floating around somewhere on the net, which is nigh impossible to redact. In fact, the very article I linked to shows the old and new covers. Variety isn’t willing to reveal where this infringement took place. So this is essentially a nuisance/intimidation suit, the kind meant to squeeze money from some soft targets who can ill afford an extensive legal battle that they would probably win. Since lawsuits are usually unpredictable, most people settle. Which is something sue happy sharks have known for years. That’s why there are so many frivolous lawsuits in the land. Usually it’s individuals going after companies for some coin.
But here we have a corporation like Variety, which for years served as a press release organ for major media companies, shaking down the little guy. Why? Consider that the newspaper business is seeing major declines across the board. As of last year Variety only had a circulation of around 24,000. Ad revenues are way down as Hollywood trims its spending. And ad revenue is the biggest share of income a circulation like Variety has. So they’re looking for easy marks who can help them get through a tough quarter. Why not cook up some trumped up excuse to sue a rock band?
The desperation here is almost worthy of a movie of the week, if anyone cared about Hollywood suicide rituals. It’s bad enough when a big company picks on the little guy, but when it’s from a paper that proudly boasts about Hollywood movies where evil corporations are ridiculed and demonized on a daily basis, it becomes the kind of pathetic sideshow you’d expect from the land of spectacle and cheap thrills.
Their lawsuit has no real merit. But that’s not the point. In Hollywood, you have to show what a big shot you are. Unfortunately for Variety, they just made themselves look weak.
Ed. Note: Vandals’ bassist Joe Escalante has contributed to Big Hollywood.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.