"Spike" TV

[harleyquinn]

Hey all,
Figured with all the heavy discussion topics going on, I'd throw in a light one about something that has no major world political impact and really probably doesn't affect most of us in our day to day lives.

So... what do you all think about this lawsuit that Spike Lee has brought against Viacom (who owns TNN) to prevent them from renaming thier station to Spike TV. He claims that they are marketing on his name, even though they've never, that I've seen, done anything to connect themselves to him except that his first name is the same.
The son of singer Spike Jones ("Yes, we have no bananas") is against this lawsuit, saying Spike Lee doesn't have exclusivity to the name Spike.
Personally, when I hear the name Spike, I think of the character on Buffy, or of Spike Jones. I never even though of Spike Lee. I find this lawsuit to be rediculous and in poor taste from Spike Lee and I am actually disappointed in him because the impression I had of him up until this moment was of someone that was above this type of (in my opinion) "frivolous" law suit.

What do the rest of you think? Maybe those in entertainment or law will bring information to the table that shows the other side of this issue?

[Albromor]

Two words to describe Spike Lee's lawsuit: Raging Narcissism

[Thoran]

Originally posted by Albromor: Two words to describe Spike Lee's lawsuit: Raging Narcissism

I think we've got ourselves a winner. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Night Stalker]

In Spike Lee's case, isn't "Spike" an alias? Oh the frivoloty .....

[johnny]

Methinks Spike smells money. Anyway, when i hear that name, i think of an old buddy of mine, who was mostly stoned all day. His last name is Spijkerman, but for friends it was just "Spike". I wonder what became of him.

[Xen]

Yes it is. his mother gave it ti him when he was younger.

[Grendal]

Is that what happened? I saw ads on tnn for the last month or so sayin they were changeing and then POOF Nothing happened!

[Faceman]

Our big Austrian skiing hero "Hermann Maier" started sueing every company with "Hermann Maier" in its name soon after he became famous.
The thing about that was that "Maier" is the most common German name (in various spellings) and "Hermann" is not very original too. So the companies he sued would mostly be small family businesses like "Hermann Maier & Söhne" (= & Sons) who had to give up their 40 year old name because Mr. Goldmedal thought that they were using HIS name to market a locksmith shop in a 300 souls village.