Pop singer Lady Gaga is famous for her unique and unusual style and she will not tolerate any artist imitating her, even if the artist is a children's cartoon character.
Lady Goo Goo is an animated character who appears on the children's social networking game Moshi Monsters. The character, who looks like a baby version of Lady Gaga, featured in a music video called The Moshi Dance, which was a hit on YouTube during the summer.
The character also sings 'Peppy-razzi', a parody of one of Lady Gaga's songs. The song, along with many others, was to be released in an album of 'Moshi Music' through iTunes later this year.
Lady Gaga was granted an interim injunction at the High Court on Monday (10 October) banning songs performed by Lady Goo Goo appearing on YouTube.
Justice Vos told Mind Candy, the British parent company of Moshi Monsters, to desist from using Lady Gaga's songs or parodies of her songs and he ruled that they could not be sold.
The injunction bans Mind Candy from "promoting, advertising, selling, distributing or otherwise making available to the public The Moshi Dance or any musical work or video that purports to be performed by a character by the name of Lady Goo Goo, or that otherwise uses the name Lady Goo Goo or any variant thereon."
The case highlights how tribute acts and parodies could be affected by the trade mark law.
Alastair Shaw, counsel at law firm Hogan Lovells, said: "Tribute bands and parody songs have been around for years but what this case shows is the potential power of registered trademark law to put a stop to some of their activities.
"This may be particularly important for tribute acts or characters with names which are similar to the original acts, as they frequently are, who want to commercialise a track parodying a well-known song."
Related links:
Read more on the story (The Guardian)
Read 'Defend your trade mark' (FindLaw)
Find local trade mark solicitors throughout the UK (FindLaw)
