Rolling Stones Sue German Clothing Company Over Mouth Logo
The Rolling Stones are suing German clothing company New Yorker Fashion over the use of the band’s tongue logo.
Lawyers from the Stones’ Netherlands-based law firm, Musidor BV, are demanding a $315,000 (£210,000) settlement and a $25,000 (£17,000) fine.
A spokesperson for the Rolling Stones said, “As with any band or major brand, we will be fiercely protective of our commercial properties, be that songs, gigs or logos. If we didn’t chase up improper use it would set a dangerous precedent.”
New Yorker Fashion CEO Fritz Knapp said, “The tongue is not the Stones’ alone. The posters were made by our creative department. I won’t let the Stones ban my tongue.”
Staff has already removed 800 promotional posters and over 3,000 clothing tags with the logo from stores.
Last month, the Rolling Stones played in Hyde Park for the first in 44 years. The gig was apparently the loudest ever played there, according to concert promoter AEG’s Jim King.
“The Rolling Stones played the loudest anybody’s ever played in Hyde Park before and we had one complaint,” King said. “The music could have been off and we’d have still had that complaint anyway.”
The band played in Hyde Park twice to mark the end of their 50th anniversary tour. King said that the company re-created Hyde Park in a country estate outside of the city in order to get the sound right for the shows.
“We put cranes in where all the noise-monitoring points were around Park Lane and Bayswater Road and we ran a show for three days,” King said. “We took nearly 10,000 noise measurements and ran it through five different sound systems – all the best sound systems that are out there.”
The last time the Rolling Stones played in Hyde Park was on July 5, 1969, two days after band member Brian Jones died. Mick Jagger read from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, Adonais, and the band’s crew released white butterflies for Jones.
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[Photo credit: cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com]
