In our post-everything society, ironically-named food and beverages are as common as mis-spelled band n@me$.
However, as clever as your Roger Waters Water may be, you can’t just jack somebody’s copyright, especially if that somebody happens to be the heavily-protected John Lennon from the famously-litigious Beatles.
Yoko Ono has stepped up and shut down a Polish lemonade company selling “John Lemon” lemonade in Europe, filing a suit in April which has now been settled out of court.
CNNMoney (which I bags as a rapper name) report that the company dispute the legality of Ono’s claims, but will nevertheless concede and rename to ‘On Lemon’ in order to “avoid the extremely high cost of the court proceeding.”
Yoko Ono’s claim was fairly open and shut, given the clear branding on the store windows, and the use of the slogans: “John Lemon, Let it Be” and “John Lemon, Imagine.”
The business nevertheless feel wronged, with their lawyer describing John Lemon as “a small family company that doesn’t have the resources of a major corporation.”
“Even the rebranding process is a large financial burden.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7f6NJm6ORU
