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Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi Sues Live Nation For Copyright Infringement

By 
December 17, 2008 12:35 PM ET

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi has sued Live Nation after the concert giant sold merchandise using the band's logo after their contract had expired. Live Nation bought merchandise company Signatures in 2007 for $79 million. Unfortunately for Live Nation, however, Black Sabbath's contract with Signatures expired in 2006, and Tony Iommi reclaimed the band's trademark. Live Nation and Signatures, Iommi alleges, continued to sell over 100 items of merchandise featuring the band's likeness, name and logo. Iommi says he sent a letter to the companies in April, asking them to stop selling their merchandise. They didn't, so now the guitarist has taken it to court, asking for damages in the amount of three times the profits from the merchandise sales, plus a halt to the Black Sabbath product sales. Live Nation has declined to comment on the case. However this ends up, it's safe to assume that if Black Sabbath should ever reunite with Ozzy Osbourne, Ticketmaster will likely handle the ticket sales.

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