Pop star Lady Gaga is seeking reimbursement of $232,484 (£172,183) in legal expenses incurred while defending a lawsuit over the name of her album, Mayhem.
The singer’s legal team has asked a federal court to order Lost Surfboards, the company behind the lawsuit, to cover the legal costs after the case was dismissed last month.
Lost Surfboards sued Gaga last year, arguing that consumers could mistakenly believe her Mayhem album and related products were affiliated with or endorsed by the surfboard company.
However, a federal judge rejected the lawsuit last month, finding that there was no likely confusion between the two brands.
Gaga’s lawyers have now described the lawsuit as a “publicity stunt”, arguing that it was never a legitimate legal claim but rather an attempt to benefit from the singer’s fame.
“A litigant should not be permitted to use the federal courts to launch a publicity stunt masquerading as a lawsuit against a high-profile artist,” Gaga’s attorney wrote in the filing, obtained and reported by Billboard.
“Nor should it be permitted to wield the machinery of litigation as a device for extracting a settlement that the merits cannot justify. This lawsuit was both.”
The legal team argued that Lost Surfboards was attempting to “capitalise on the fame and popularity of Lady Gaga” by pursuing a dispute over the use of what they described as “a common dictionary word”.
The surfboard company had previously accused Gaga of showing a “blatant disregard” for its trademark rights, particularly over the stylised red Mayhem logo used by the singer.
Gaga had already secured an earlier victory in the dispute in December, when a judge rejected Lost Surfboards’ request to prevent her from selling Mayhem-branded merchandise.
The latest filing seeks to recover the substantial legal expenses Gaga incurred while successfully defending herself against the trademark lawsuit.
