American Idol sues Austin strip club for having a weekly 'Stripper Idol'

[Morg]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/011209dntswidolsuit.1b7075f9.html

'American Idol' sues to stop Austin strip club's takeoff

02:42 PM CST on Monday, January 12, 2009

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – The half-naked, spike-heeled strippers writhing onstage at the Palazio Men's Club "Stripper Idol" contest are a far cry from celebrity stardom – even if they win.

Amateur strippers gather onstage to compete for a $500 cash prize in the Stripper Idol contest at Palazio Men's Club in Austin. FremantleMedia, which owns 'American Idol', has sued the club for trademark infringement.
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But that hasn't stopped the mega-media company that owns American Idol from suing the Austin club in federal court.

FremantleMedia, which owns the country's most-watched TV show, says Palazio's weekly amateur stripping contest is a trademark violation, one that tarnishes the company brand and could lead the public to believe the TV show is sponsoring the event.

Attorneys for FremantleMedia North America, who did not return repeated phone calls, have sued the club in U.S. district court, seeking to end the contest and seize Palazio's profits.

Palazio managers, who first thought the lawsuit was a joke, say they have no intention of ending the Thursday night strip-off.

They say the contest – where girls have 60 seconds to dance topless, then are ranked by audience applause to win $500 – bears no resemblance to the hit TV show.

If anything, the suit has brought the club national attention: The contest, now in its 12th week, is growing in popularity.

"It's lots of amateurs: women who come in with their husbands, ladies that come in with their friends. Last week we even had a big girl win," said club operations manager Scott Stevenson, reclining in a plush chair in Palazio's VIP section. "It's shocking. We're just a local company – it's not like we're some big threat."

On Thursday night, a dozen amateur strippers signed in for Stripper Idol, giving stage names like Zephyr, Sexy, Goldie, Mercedes. In the dressing room, they slipped out of jeans and sweatshirts and into their exotic dancer garb: 6-inch platform heels, tiny bikini tops and nearly invisible thongs. Tattoos sprawled across salon-tanned skin.

After hearing about the Stripper Idol lawsuit on TMZ, a celebrity gossip Web site, Peyton Watson and Nicole Williams, 20-year-old friends who met working at Hooters, drove nine hours from Amarillo to compete. They listened closely to the house rules – they're too young to drink alcohol but old enough to give $20 lap dances – before lacing up their knee-high boots.

"It's nerve-racking, sure, but it's $500," said Williams, who went by the stage name Hayley. As she giggled, she held out two shaking French-manicured hands.

"It's a one-time thing because we need the money," added Watson, a shock of black hair grazing her pierced lips. She called herself Zephyr.

FremantleMedia's lawsuit takes issue more with the club's marketing than with the contest itself. The suit notes that Palazio uses the word "idol" in the contest name – a direct link to American Idol, which starts its new season Tuesday. And it has designed a contest logo that uses a "color scheme, design and font" mirroring that of the TV show. In addition to using the logo in advertisements, the club has waitresses wear T-shirts emblazoned with it – T-shirts cut, tied and tailored in revealing ways.

"Defendants are infringing upon FremantleMedia's trademark rights," the suit said. "There is a substantial likelihood that consumers will be confused, misled or deceived as to the sponsorship… of the defendants' stripper talent contest."

Manfred Westphal, a Fremantle senior vice president, declined to elaborate on the suit. "We have no comment," he said.

The suit's claims are hogwash, said "Kinky" Kelly Jones, a club manager and the show's emcee. Fremantle can't lay claims to the word "idol," he said.

"That word is biblical," he said, "and has been around for thousands of years."

And while Stevenson said the club would alter the logo if necessary, he added that he thought the whole suit was a bum deal.

"I didn't know you could copyright an oval," he said.

After midnight, when Jones finally took the microphone, the girls lined up backstage, a blur of rhinestones and lace and crumpled dollar bills.

Under the smoky haze of strobe lights, each stripped for a minute, flipping hair extensions and gyrating around a brass pole to pulsating hard-rock ballads. Some looked skittish, like they'd been practicing in their living room. Others, like Zephyr and Hayley, had the look of old pros – though they swore they'd only stripped "a few times."

When the lights came up and the audience roared, it was Zephyr and Hayley in a tie for the money – and the nearly naked girls embraced gleefully. Finally, Hayley narrowly won – but they both got gas money to get back to Amarillo

 

[terry78]

If it's involving naked women, it must be Morg.

 

[kane9321]

morg

 

[POWdER-man]

TOB next?

 

[Heretic]

Wait...so if they can sue over anything using "blank" Idol then they should also be able to sue for anything with American "blank". This could get fun!

 

[AnorexicBatman]

Simon Conwell: That was pathetic... my grandmother could do better

Paula Abdul: WOW! Fantastic!!! weee!! *jumps on stage and starts to dance*

Randy Jackson: hmmm.. not bad! I think you need to move our hips a bit more.. nice boobs by the way...

 

[Immortalfire]

Oh good grief

 

[Majic Walrus]

I usually am not one for copyright lawsuits but I think the owners of American Idol have something. They Strip club is obviously using the fame and success of American Idol to market their competition.

I can understand the usage of the phrase "Stripper Idol" but not if it's intended usage infringes on the copyright.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Man people do not know when to pick their battles, it's not like this club was a threat in any way, it's one club. All these *****ebags did is make it a story and draw attention to the event. Since the purpose was to distance any connection between them, they failed epically. Also I worry about how copywrite laws can work to take over phrases and words and destroy parody.

 

[The Original Bamfer]

TOB next?

I was just going to say!

 

[Majic Walrus]

Man people do not know when to pick their battles, it's not like this club was a threat in any way, it's one club. All these *****ebags did is make it a story and draw attention to the event. Since the purpose was to distance any connection between them, they failed epically. Also I worry about how copywrite laws can work to take over phrases and words and destroy parody.

It's possible that it could affect advertising and marketing in that market area. People might assume that since the logos are similiar that they are owned by the same company and pretty soon people want to disassociate themselves from American Idol because they do Stripper Idol too.

Also Stripper Idol is making money based on the popularity of American Idol and that's not really fair. This can't really be considered a parody because they aren't attempting a humorous or satirical slant in anyway.

 

[moraldeficiency]

yeah but then you've taken a minor local problem and elevated it to national levels, in fact I'd say you've probably made a strip club the sympathetic underdog, that's a spectacular screw up from their intentions.

Big deal, it's not like their bringing in the american idol crowd. They're using a play on the most popular (and stupidest) show on television so they can have a different name from all the other amateur nights strip clubs offered. And I don't know what they're attempting but if I saw that sign on the road, I'd laugh.

The logo thing I could see, the name definately not. And they've brought this on themselves. If a crazy bum is insulting you when you walk by do you make a point of stopping and confronting this person or do you save yourself the grief and just keep walking? Only *******s have the need to be confrontational when it's completely unnecessary and contrary to your best interests.

 

[jaguarr]

Gotta agree with moraldeficiency on this. The American Idol people just bit the hook this strip club put out there and are giving them even more free publicity. Dumb. At any rate, this cracked me up:

"Last week we even had a big girl win!"

Wow, very sporting and equal opportunity in your exploitation of women, guys. LOL!

jag

 

[Majic Walrus]

yeah but then you've taken a minor local problem and elevated it to national levels, in fact I'd say you've probably made a strip club the sympathetic underdog, that's a spectacular screw up from their intentions.

Big deal, it's not like their bringing in the american idol crowd. They're using a play on the most popular (and stupidest) show on television so they can have a different name from all the other amateur nights strip clubs offered. And I don't know what they're attempting but if I saw that sign on the road, I'd laugh.

The logo thing I could see, the name definately not. And they've brought this on themselves. If a crazy bum is insulting you when you walk by do you make a point of stopping and confronting this person or do you save yourself the grief and just keep walking? Only *******s have the need to be confrontational when it's completely unnecessary and contrary to your best interests.

Point made. That's true. They definately made a bigger spectacle than they needed and only managed to make themselves look like petty *****bags.

 

[Showtime]

Bamfer and I are in trouble.

 

[Drizzle]

Stripper Idol >>>>>>>> American Idol

 

[xisaacx]

everyone has to get paid somehow