Newsbrief: Sony has filed a lawsuit against tyre manufacturer Bridgestone and production company Wildcat Creek for the alleged use of its Kevin Butler promotional character.
Played by actor Jerry Lambert, the Kevin Butler character was created by Sony to advertise its PlayStation products. However, Lambert recently appeared in a Bridgestone advert which featured him playing Mario Kart Wii on a Nintendo Wii, and Sony claims that Bridgestone has used the Kevin Butler character in such a way that it infringes on the company's intellectual property.
In a statement to Venturebeat, the company explained, "We invested significant resources in bringing the Kevin Butler character to life and he's become an iconic personality directly associated with PlayStation products over the years."
"Use of the Kevin Butler character to sell products other than those from PlayStation misappropriates Sony’s intellectual property, creates confusion in the market, and causes damage to Sony."
Everything in the video game industry has happened before. At the time of this ad, Atari was running tons o' commercials with this blonde kid selling Atari games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD9GySeh2t4&feature=related
I think this is a bit of a grey area, he wasn't actually promoting the Wii he was promoting BridgeStone and a Wii just so happened a prize for the contest they were running. I'm not sure how strong sony's case really is.
It's not strong at all. The fact that Bridgestone removed the ad from airing any longer helps the case. Also I believe that the Sony ad had to be playing in order for Jerry Lambert to be held liable, those commercials were years ago. An arguement can be made, just not a sound one.
- Marcus
(I am not a lawyer, nor do I practice law)