Two surviving members of the rap group claim that the toy company has committed 'unlawful acts of copyright infringement' by featuring 'Girls' in a video advertisement.
- Dec 12, 2013
AceShowbiz - The legal battle between Beastie Boys and GoldieBlox continues. The rap group has filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, claiming that the toy company committed copyright and trademark infringement for featuring a parody of single "Girls" in a YouTube viral video advertisement.
"The Beastie Boys Parties have suffered and will continue to suffer injury in an amount not presently known," the suit states. "[They] are entitled to recover from GoldieBlox the damages and lost profits they have sustained as a result of GoldieBlox's unlawful acts of copyright infringement and to recover from GoldieBlox the gains, profits, and advantages GoldieBlox has obtained as a result of the wrongful conduct alleged herein."
Beastie Boys took the legal action after GoldieBlox preemptively sued them last month. At that time, the group's members addressed the matter in an open letter.
"As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product. And long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads," they wrote. "When we tried to simply ask how and why our song 'Girls' had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US."
The California-based company later removed "Girls" from the ad and wrote their own open letter, in which they apologized and revealed their plan to drop the lawsuit.
"Since actions speak louder than words, we have already removed the song from our video. In addition, we are ready to stop the lawsuit as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from your legal team," said GoldieBlox founder Debbie Sterling. "We don't want to spend our time fighting legal battles. We want to inspire the next generation. We want to be good role models. And we want to be your friends."
