Lawsuit
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Coldplay’s former manager, Dave Holmes, is suing the band for more than £10 million ($12 million) in damages and outstanding payments, according to documents filed in the London High Court.
Holmes managed Coldplay for more than two decades, helping the British group become one of the world’s biggest rock acts prior to being dismissed by them in late 2022.
In legal papers filed in the U.K. courts, which have been viewed by Billboard, attorneys for Holmes say he is suing the four members of Coldplay — Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin — for more than £10 million ($12 million) over the defendants’ “failure and refusal to comply” with the terms of their management contract. News of the lawsuit was first reported by Variety last month.
The dispute centers around a proposed contract agreement that Holmes says the band entered into with his California-based management company, DHMC, relating to Coldplay’s yet-to-be-released tenth and eleventh studio albums and related tours, which the former manager claims he is due unpaid commission on.
According to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 11 in the U.K. Business and Property Courts, Coldplay received an advance of £35 million ($44 million) for its tenth album from Warner Music Group-owned Parlophone Records. Holmes says he also negotiated advances of £15 million ($19 million) each for the group’s subsequent two studio albums as part of the extension of Coldplay’s recording contract with Parlophone, signed in June 2021.
One month later, Holmes was paid £1.5 million ($1.9 million) by the band, representing his 10% commission fee from the initial £15 million advance payment Coldplay received from the label for its tenth album. Holmes was paid a further £1.5 million ($1.9 million) in October 2021 but says the band still owes him outstanding commission from the record company advances.
In addition, Holmes claims he is due payment for “extensive services” his company carried out relating to the prospective albums and touring schedules prior to his termination as manager.
These services allegedly include scheduling, marketing, budgeting, sponsorship and ticket pricing for the U.S., Asia and Australia legs of the 2022/23 “Music of the Spheres” world tour, as well as work on the band’s next two releases, such as arranging writing and recording sessions in Jamaica and London and preparing promotional campaigns.
Listed among the services Holmes says he and his team carried out for Coldplay’s as-yet-unscheduled tenth album are budgeting and marketing activities, clearing an instrumental sample from musician Hal Walker, arranging a recording session on a film set in Boston, and liaising with producer Max Martin’s manager to arrange recording and production sessions.
Holmes also claims that preparatory work was carried out around possible touring scenarios in 2024/25, including meeting with promoters.
According to legal papers filed by Holmes’ attorneys, Coldplay argues that a contract agreement for the band’s tenth and eleventh albums was never concluded and that commission deals between Holmes and the group for any of its previous nine albums, including the group’s first two releases, expired at the end of last year.
Although the cause of the fallout between Holmes and Coldplay is not detailed in the lawsuit, court documents do reveal that Coldplay asked Holmes to step down from managing the band in June last year and instead become head of touring, whereby he would receive commission on touring and live performance revenue but forgo payment on recording or publishing revenue.
According to the lawsuit, in September, Coldplay’s solicitors wrote to Holmes to inform him that the head of touring proposal was no longer on offer and his involvement with the band was to officially end Dec. 31, 2022. Since then, the band has been managed by long-term associates Phil Harvey, Mandi Frost and Arlene Moon.
Holmes is now asking the U.K. courts to determine if the so-called “Albums 10/11 Agreement” stands and for Coldplay to pay him any outstanding commission, as per its terms. Alternatively, his attorneys are asking that Holmes receive “reasonable remuneration in respect” of the services he carried out for the multi-million-selling British band.
“Dave Holmes successfully managed Coldplay for more than 22 years, steering them to be one of the most successful bands in music history. Now, as the legal case shows, Coldplay is refusing to honor Dave’s management contract and pay him what he is owed,” says Holmes’ lawyer, Phil Sherrell, in a statement provided to Billboard.
Representatives for Coldplay confirmed with Billboard that Holmes’ management contract with the four-piece expired at the end of 2022 “at which point they decided not to start a new one. The matter is now in the hands of Coldplay’s lawyers and the claims are being vigorously disputed.”
A tribute band that was sued by Earth, Wind & Fire for trademark infringement is firing back with a bold counterargument: That the famed R&B act has actually abandoned any intellectual property rights to its name.
In a court filing on Wednesday (Aug. 30), the smaller band — which calls itself Earth Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion — argued that the original group had allowed so many tribute bands to use its name without repercussion that it can no longer claim exclusive rights to it.
“Due to the unchecked third-party use of the phrase, [EW&F] has abandoned ‘Earth, Wind & Fire,’ and [the name] has lost its trademark significance,” wrote attorneys for Substantial Music Group, which operates Legacy Reunion.
The new filing listed out a dozen other tribute acts that allegedly feature “Earth, Wind & Fire” as part of their name, including “September: A Tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire” and “Let’s Groove Tonight: The Ultimate Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute Band,” as well as even simpler names like simply “Earth Wind & Fire Tribute.”
“[The band] has taken no action to enforce its purported trademark rights against any of the third-party vocal and instrument groups that have been using the phrase,” Legacy Reunion wrote in Wednesday’s filing. “The present civil action represents the first occasion on which Counter-Defendant has sought to enforce its registered trademarks against another party.”
Earth, Wind & Fire has continued to tour since founder Maurice White died in 2016, led by longtime members Philip Bailey, Ralph Johnson and White’s brother, Verdine White. The band operates under a license from Earth Wind & Fire IP, a holding company owned by Maurice White’s sons that formally owns the name.
In a March lawsuit, that company accused Legacy Reunion of trying to trick consumers into thinking it was the real Earth Wind & Fire. Though it called itself a “Reunion,” the lawsuit said the tribute band contained only a few “side musicians” who briefly played with Earth, Wind & Fire many years ago.
“Defendants did this to benefit from the commercial magnetism and immense goodwill the public has for plaintiff’s ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ marks and logos, thereby misleading consumers and selling more tickets at higher prices,” the group’s lawyers wrote.
Tribute acts — groups that exclusively cover the music of a particular band — are legally allowed to operate, and they often adopt names that allude to the original. But they must be clear that they are a tribute band, and they can get into legal hot water if they make it appear that they are affiliated with or endorsed by the original. In 2021, ABBA filed a similar trademark lawsuit against a band that had been touring under the name ABBA Mania, calling it “parasitic”; that suit was quickly settled after ABBA Mania agreed to stop using the name.
According to Earth, Wind & Fire’s lawyers, the use of “Legacy Reunion” was not a clear enough distinction. The lawsuit cited alleged examples of angry consumers who mistakenly bought tickets for the wrong band, including one that read, “This was not Earth Wind and Fire. NO Philip Bailey or Verdine White. It was just a band playing Earth Wind and Fire music. I purchased 3 tickets and I was very disappointed. It was truly false advertisement. I want my money back!!!!!”
Wednesday’s filing came as a so-called “answer and counterclaims” — a standard response to any lawsuit, in which a defendant like Legacy Reunion can formally deny the accusations and level their own at their opponent.
In its counterclaims, Legacy Reunion argued that the band’s lack of enforcement against other tribute bands means that its trademark to “Earth, Wind & Fire” should be formally “cancelled.”
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Future has one less thing to worry about thanks to a judge that is tune with the culture. Judge Martha Pacold referenced some classic works when dismissing a copyright lawsuit.
As spotted on TMZ the trapper turned rapper was sued about two years ago by DaQuan Robinson. The man claimed he created a song titled “When I Think About It” and sent the work to Future’s team. In 2017 Pluto released on the Beastmode 2 mixtape which featured his song “When U Think About It”. Robinson claims that Future lifted elements from his version and even spoke on a lot of the same content he did. Fast forward to 2023, Judge Pacold threw out his case citing that those themes are generally found in many Rap songs and are not protected by copyright.
The magistrate went on to further detail her ruling by referring to earlier works from The Notorious B.I.G., Kanye West and even the Wu-Tang Clan. She also cited Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s hit song “Our House” regarding Robinson’s “core lyric” copyright claim. “The core lyric, ‘our house is a very, very, very fine house,’ is used to support the entire rest of the song, which uses the house and its constituent elements as the setting for the narrator’s relationship,” said Pacold. “This songwriting technique is not unique to Robinson, nor mid-century Canadian-American bands that feature intricate vocal harmonies. The mere use of a ‘core lyric’ to support a song’s storyline is not protectable element because it is a frequently utilized technique in popular songwriting.”
Future has yet to comment on the favorable ruling.
Photo: PhotosByBeanz
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A stagehand hired to prepare The Weeknd‘s After Hours Til Dawn Tour stopover at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on August 14, 2022, has filed suit against Live Nation Entertainment, alleging his leg was run over by a forklift while the stage was being built.
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Stagehand Steve Genovese was reportedly working for a company hired by Live Nation to construct the stage for the concert when the accident occurred. The complaint alleges five counts of civil liability including negligence, negligent hiring and gross negligence.
“Genovese was reported ‘run over by a forklift which was being operated by another worker on site,’” the complaint reads. “As a result, plaintiff suffered severe, excruciatingly painful and permanently disabling injuries to his leg. The flesh and muscle were torn away from his leg and were detached from the bones.”
The lawsuit also names concert promoter C3 Presents, business management firm David Weise & Associates and Cowboys Stadium, LP (which owns AT&T Stadium) as defendants. The Weeknd is not listed as a defendant.
“Defendants had the knowledge, ability, and duty to prevent the severe and life-altering injuries,”the complaint reads, but allegedly “placed more value on their own financial gain than on the safety of the workers who helped put on The Weeknd concert.”
According to the suit, there was no ambulance or EMS personnel on site when the accident occurred, which “significantly delayed” medical care. The complaint continues: “[Genovese] spent more than a month in the hospital where he underwent numerous surgeries to save his leg, which is now horrifically and permanently disfigured and impaired.”
Genovese is seeking damages for medical expenses, physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and emotional distress, loss of earning and earning capacity, physical impairment, disfigurement, “loss of society and enjoyment of life,” out of pocket expenses and more.
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After a year of back-and-forth in a court of law, Nike and a Kool Kiy partner have reached a settlement on a trademark infringement lawsuit that the Swoosh brand filed against Kool Kiy in 2022.
Nice Kicks is reporting that Nike and Kool Kiy partners David Weeks and Nickwon Arvinger have seemingly settled their lawsuit filed, Aug. 23, in which Nike accused the up and coming brand of straight biting their Air Jordan 1 silhouette with minor differences and making a profit off of it. Real talk, a lot of heads were copping those Kool Kiy kicks as they weren’t half bad. Yes, they looked like OG Air Jordan 1s, but instead of a Swoosh check they sported a lightning bolt logo on the side.
Nice Kicks reports:
The court ordered that defendant David Weeks admit that Nike is the exclusive owner of all registered trademarks named in the lawsuit.
Additionally, the judge ordered that Weeks would no longer be able to produce and distribute Kool Kiy’s shoes.
On February 15, Kool Kiy filed a counter lawsuit that stated that customers wanted a product different from the “norm” and that Kool Kiy’s registered Lightning Bolt trademark logo did not resemble the Nike Swoosh. The new ruling dismissed all of Kool Kiy’s counterclaims against Nike.
Yeah, the reasoning behind Kool Kiy’s countersuit didn’t have a chance in hell. Just sayin’.
The news comes a year after Nike reached a settlement with John Geiger over his trademark Infringement as he was using the Nike Air Force 1 silhouette to create his own GF-01 sneakers that bore a striking resemblance to the classic Nike silhouette.
In the past few years, Nike hasn’t been scared to flex their legal muscle as they’ve been suing any and everyone they feel are exploiting their products for their own personal financial gain. From custom designers to Stock X, no one is safe if they’re messing with Nike’s billion dollar empire. Heck, if you go viral for dancing wrong in a pair of SB Dunks, Nike might serve you with a legal notice to stop dancing in their products. It’s that real.
What do y’all think of Nike settling with Kool Kiy? Will you miss the Kool Kiy kicks with the lightening bolt? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Quavo‘s assistant, who was one of three people wounded in the November 2022 shooting in Houston that killed Migos rapper Takeoff, filed a lawsuit against the venue Wednesday (Aug. 16) for failing to provide adequate security, screening or emergency assistance before or after the incident.
Joshua Washington, who was working as Quavo’s personal assistant at the time of the tragedy, is suing 810 Billiards and Bowling, its owners and property managers over the incident. He is being represented by civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers of the Strom Law Firm and Audia Jones of the Law Office of Audia Jones.
“810 Houston was warned that they needed extra security. They knew it was a hotspot for violent crime and that an after-hours event like this could turn deadly in a second,” said Sellers in a statement. “But they ignored those warnings and now they have blood on their hands. This shooting was a tragedy. But it was a preventable tragedy.”
According to the lawsuit, defendants 810 Houston, LVA4 Houston Greenstreet, Lionstone Partners, Midway Companies and Cushman & Wakefeld of Texas “provided no screening mechanisms, no after-hours controls or security measures, and no enforcement of rules or industry standards to deter crime against their invitees.” The suit also states that while the shooting was taking place, “no security personnel or personnel from the venue responded or otherwise attempted to deter or end the violence.”
“They had no properly trained security personnel, adequate signage, lighting or cameras. They had no screening to keep out weapons. They didn’t even have a working metal detector,” Jones said in a statement. “This was a powder keg of their own making and folks like Takeoff and Joshua Washington got caught in the explosion.”
Takeoff (real name Kirshnik Khari Ball) was shot and killed in the wee hours of Nov. 1, 2022. He was 28.
Washington, who was an innocent bystander, was shot in his right side by stray bullets, which entered about an inch from his colon. And because the elevators and escalators at the venue “were not operational before, during, or after the event,” he claimed in the suit that he had to run down three flights of stairs while sustaining serious personal injuries, find his own way to the hospital and spend approximately one to two days there while seeking the care of medical professionals. Washington had the bullet from his right side removed, but doctors were unable to remove the bullet fragments. He currently resides in Georgia.
“There was no one. The bullets started flying and no one came to help,” Washington said in a statement. “There were no security guards trying to stop the shooting, no one to help those of us who were hurt, no one at all. They just left us there to die.”
Washington’s lawsuit was filed just two months after Takeoff’s mother, Titania Davenport, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Houston bowling alley.
Representatives for 810 Billiards & Bowling did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.
You can read the full lawsuit below.
Lizzo’s Big Grrrls dance crew have officially spoken out in support of the singer amid a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by her former dancers. “We had the time of our lives on The Special Tour. We have been so honored to share the stage with such amazing talent,” reads the statement posted to the Big […]
It didn’t take long for news of a lawsuit against Lizzo to put a dent in her sales and streaming activity. Multiple metrics — such as on-demand audio streams and Instagram followers — reveal a small but noticeable fan backlash in the week following news that the singer was sued in a Los Angeles court by three tour dancers who claimed the “Special” singer subjected them to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
From August 1 — the day the lawsuit became public — to August 8, Lizzo’s daily U.S. on-demand audio streams fell 21.7% while her daily U.S. track sales have declined 35%, according to Luminate.
Almost half of the decline in U.S. track sales appears to be the result of a drop-off in sales of “Pink,” Lizzo’s contribution to the Barbie: The Album soundtrack. Excluding “Pink,” Lizzo’s track sales declined 19.3% from August 1 to August 8. The decline in her on-demand audio streams excluding “Pink” was unchanged at 21.7%.
The cumulative loss over the seven-day period is relatively minor: about 6 million on-demand audio streams with a royalty value of roughly $10,000 to her record label, according to Billboard’s estimate. Smaller yet is the cumulative decline in royalties from track sales of roughly $1,000 over the same period.
The financial damage would be far greater if Lizzo’s streams and sales continue to be impacted by the controversy. The lawsuit could remain in the public spotlight for some time: The attorney representing the three plaintiffs claims to have received “at least six other inquiries” from people with similar stories regarding their employment by Lizzo. If her U.S. sales and streams continued at the current rate, the cumulative decline in U.S. royalties from streams and track sales would amount to about $89,000 over the first 30-day period and $320,000 over a 90-day, three-month period.
Although her streaming numbers dropped considerably, Lizzo lost just 0.1% of her Spotify followers, amounting to roughly 6,000 of her 5.6 million followers, in the seven days after news of the lawsuit broke. But the singer took a bigger hit on social media. In the week after the lawsuit, Lizzo’s Instagram followers fell 1.7% to 13.4 million while her TikTok followers declined 0.7% to 26.8 million, according to Chartmetric.
Social media numbers fall when services occasionally remove fake followers, but “it is highly unusual to see these simultaneous declines in follower accounts on multiple services,” says Chaz Jenkins, Chartmetric’s chief commercial officer. Artists’ followers tend to increase steadily over time. In fact, before the lawsuit, Lizzo’s Instagram never declined more than 0.1% over any seven-day period in 2023. .
Seeing some fans’ reaction to Lizzo’s lawsuit recalls how Doja Cat lost about 600,000 Instagram followers in roughly two and a half weeks, according to Chartmetric, after the rapper traded barbs with her fans. She received none of the groundswell of support that Jason Aldean experienced after CMT’s decision to pull the video for his song “Try That in a Small Town” sparked a national conversation. From July 1 to August 10, Aldean’s YouTube subscribers grew by 10.9% to 2.7 million, his Instagram followers increased 5.9% to 4.3 million and the track went to No. 1 on the Hot 100. But, as Kanye West’s rebounding music consumption suggests, listeners may not stay mad for long.
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It seems like Offset is no longer at odds with his recording home. He has dismissed his lawsuit against Quality Control Music.
As spotted on Variety Magazine the Lawrenceville, Georgia native is moving on from his legal woes concerning his solo work. Back in April it was revealed that the Migos member was trying to regain the ownership to his master recordings. TMZ reported that in 2013 he signed a contract with QC to produce solo albums. But in 2015 the record label signed a new distribution deal with Capitol Records that in turn reverted ownership of his solo works back to Quality Control. Naturally, Offset felt that the move violated the original 2013 terms thus he took the record company to court.
On Friday, August 4 Offset’s legal team requested the lawsuit be dismissed with prejudice. Neither Quality Control or representatives for the “Slipper” rapper have yet to publicly comment on the recent news. Back in May Offset spoke to Variety Magazine for their cover story and he discussed the situation. “This is me going full-fledged into my solo career,” he explained. “The objective is to do it fully and smash sh*t and f*** the game up as a solo artist. I’m coming through, bustin’ through the door. It’s all set, my next chapter. It’s my time.”
Most recently Offset released his new single “Jealousy” with his wife Cardi B. You can watch the video below.
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New York City has agreed to pay out over $13 million in a settlement with protesters over their treatment during arrests by police in 2020.
On Wednesday (July 19th), the settlement amount of $13.7 million was agreed to by city officials. The settlement is in response to a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of 1,300 individuals who were arrested and/or beaten by members of the New York Police Department during protests over the killing of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Once approved by a judge, the settlement would rank among the most expensive ever recorded. Other cities are in the process of negotiating their own settlements with those who filled streets across the country in outrage.
“Today’s settlement is historic, and I’m very proud that it will bring some sense of justice to nearly 1,400 people who took to the streets and put their bodies on the line against police brutality,” attorney Wylie Stecklow said with other attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild representing the plaintiffs in a press conference at Foley Square in lower Manhattan afterward. Plaintiffs described their treatment in testimony during the two years of litigation to the press, including “kettling” or forcibly boxing people into a tight space and having zip ties placed on them until their hands turned purple as described by Adam Sow. “It was so disorganized but so intentional,” they said. “They seemed set on traumatizing everyone.”
If approved, each plaintiff in the suit would be slated to receive $9,950. There is another class action settlement that was announced in March which would award over $21,000 to those who were arrested by the NYPD at one protest in the Bronx. Over 600 other people have filed suits against the city, costing over $12 million to date. The city has denied any unconstitutional practices. “There is no history — or present or future — of unconstitutional policing,” Georgia Pestana, an attorney for the city, wrote in a legal filing. “There is no frequent deprivation of constitutional rights.” The Law Department of the city released a statement saying, “The NYPD has improved numerous practices to address the challenges it faced at protests during the pandemic. This settlement was in the best interests of all parties.”
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