Early this month, Demitri Brown and Donna Evans-Brown (the “Browns”) filed a federal trademark infringement suit against Christopher Bridges p/k/a Ludacris, claiming that Luda’s “Disturbing Tha Peace” trademark is confusingly similar to their mark “Disturb the Peace.” However, “Disturb the Peace” has been canceled since August 31, 2004. This means that the Browns no longer have a valid US Federal Trademark Registration, which ultimately means that they may likely only claim common law trademark rights and not Federal trademark rights.
On the other hand, Ludacris has several trademark registrations that incorporate “Disturbing Tha Peace” (Reg. Nos. 3159855, 2945795, 2923163, 2925238, 3220495,...
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