Karaoke lawsuit rocks Virginia
If you’ve ever been to a karaoke session and found yourself wanting to sue someone, here’s a lawsuit for you.
Just before Christmas, two related karaoke / sing-along entertainment manufacturing companies, one from North Carolina and one from Delaware, filed suit in the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division) against an array of people and businesses who provide or host karaoke in the Northern Virginia and Richmond areas. (Case no. 1:09-cv-01390; see copy of 41-page Complaint here.)
The lawsuit is an action for trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1114 and 1125).
The complaint alleges that, thanks to new technologies that make it possible to easily copy the special karaoke CDs, up to thirty illegitimate copies of new karaoke releases are created for each legitimate copy sold, causing significant losses and layoffs and an overall threat to the businesses of the two plaintiffs, Slep-Tone Entertainment Corp. and Sound Choice Studios, Inc. It further alleges that investigators for the plaintiffs “observed each of the Defendants possessing, using, or authorizing or benefiting from unauthorized counterfeit copies of at least one work bearing the” plaintiffs’ marks.
The plaintiffs seek compensatory damages, the defendants’ profits, or statutory damages, treble or punitive damages, attorney’s fees, injunctive relief, and seizure of all media containing counterfeits.
No word yet on whether the lawsuit will have a soundtrack.
