C+C Music Manufacturing facility co-founder Robert Clivillés sues Freedom Williams for $30M, looking for cancellation of the trademark on the group’s identify
Robert Clivillés, the surviving co-founder of C+C Music Manufacturing facility, is suing rapper Freedom Williams for USD $30 million over his use of the group’s identify.
The grievance, which you’ll learn in full right here, was filed on Friday (August 14) within the US District Courtroom for the Japanese District of New York, with Clivillés representing himself.
It names Williams, his firm Freedom Williams Leisure, LLC and the label Large Mac Leisure, LLC, together with 20 unnamed defendants.
The submitting runs to 9 counts, amongst them trademark infringement, false designation of origin, fraud on the USPTO, unfair competitors, unjust enrichment, defamation, and breach of contract.
Clivillés is looking for compensatory damages of at least USD $10 million, trebled beneath the Lanham Act to USD $30 million, together with punitive damages and disgorgement of earnings.
He additionally desires the courtroom to cancel USPTO Registration No. 4775972 and handy him administrative management of the longstanding C+C Music Manufacturing facility Instagram account, which Williams runs.
The case activates what C+C refers to.
“The identify C+C Music Manufacturing facility stands for Clivillés and Cole Music Manufacturing facility,” the grievance states.
“The identify C+C Music Manufacturing facility stands for Clivillés and Cole Music Manufacturing facility. It refers completely to Robert Clivillés and David Cole, who created the group in New York Metropolis in 1990 and are the only members of C+C Music Manufacturing facility.”
Robert Clivillés’ grievance
“It refers completely to Robert Clivillés and David Cole, who created the group in New York Metropolis in 1990 and are the only members of C+C Music Manufacturing facility. Defendant Freedom Williams served completely as a featured visitor artist on particular recordings.”
“Mr. Williams was by no means a founder, co-owner, or a signed group member of C+C Music Manufacturing facility.”
In keeping with the submitting, Williams signed a Memorandum of Unique Recording Settlement with Cole/Clivillés Music Enterprises dated January 23, 1990.
Williams was engaged beneath it “completely as a featured vocalist for rent, not as a member, co-founder, or proprietor of C+C Music Manufacturing facility in any capability in anyway,” the grievance says.
Clivillés says Williams requested to be launched from that settlement in mid-1991, “stating he didn’t wish to be related to C+C Music Manufacturing facility or with Clivillés and Cole‘s enterprises going ahead.”
David Cole died on January 24, 1995.
An Property Settlement Settlement signed with Cole‘s property on October 4, 1996, acknowledged Clivillés‘ unique proper to industrial use of the C+C Music Manufacturing facility identify, based on the grievance.
Williams registered the mark C AND C MUSIC FACTORY in his personal identify on Could 17, 2005, and that registration was canceled in 2012 for failure to file an affidavit of use, USPTO information present.
A contemporary software for C & C MUSIC FACTORY adopted on October 29, 2014, this time within the identify of Freedom Williams Leisure, and it was granted as Registration No. 4775972 on July 21, 2015.
“As a part of his software, Williams affirmed falsely and knowingly that he was the proprietor of the mark and that no different individuals had the best to make use of the mark in commerce,” the grievance alleges.
“These statements had been false. Plaintiff Clivillés created the mark in 1990 and has repeatedly used it in commerce since that date.”
“Williams knew this.”
Clivillés petitioned the Trademark Trial and Enchantment Board to cancel that registration in December 2016.
“The TTAB continuing was dismissed with prejudice on June 25, 2018 solely resulting from Plaintiff’s prior counsel’s failure to file a trial transient,” the grievance states.
“No tribunal has ever adjudicated the substance of Plaintiff’s cancellation claims on the deserves,” Clivillés writes.
The submitting traces the present dispute to a seven-minute video posted to the C+C Music Manufacturing facility Instagram account on Could 29, 2026.
Within the video, the grievance alleges, Williams “made statements invoking Adolf Hitler, used repeated racial slurs, and directed vulgar and sexually degrading language at members of the general public.”
Williams had been booked for Donald Trump‘s Freedom 250 live performance collection, a part of the Nice American State Truthful, and filmed the video on a rest room amid the backlash. A lot of the introduced lineup withdrew, and Trump canceled the live shows in June, changing them with a rally he headlined on June 24, the day earlier than the truthful opened to the general public.
Clivillés launched a rival official C+C Music Manufacturing facility Instagram account to disavow Williams, and issued a public authorized warning on June 2, 2026.
Ten days later, the defendants launched a single known as Into the Future via Large Mac Leisure Information, branded as a C+C Music Manufacturing facility report and issued to greater than 80 digital platforms.
That launch “was made with full information of Plaintiff’s authorized objections, establishing willful and deliberate infringement,” Clivillés alleges.
Sony Music signed Clivillés and Cole “straight as C+C Music Manufacturing facility to a five-album deal earlier than any featured artists had been engaged,” the submitting says.
Gonna Make You Sweat (All people Dance Now) topped each the Billboard Scorching 100 and the Scorching Dance Music/Membership Play chart, the grievance says, and Issues That Make You Go Hmmm… additionally reached No. 1 on Membership Play.
Williams‘ solo profession didn’t match that: his 1993 single Voice of Freedom peaked at No. 74 on the Scorching 100 and No. 4 on Membership Play.
For the reason that late Nineties, the grievance alleges, Williams has collected between USD $5,000 and USD $10,000 per reserving worldwide.
Williams‘ lawyer, Charles F. Schmitt, instructed Billboard that the claims are meritless and that Williams is the authorized proprietor of the mark.
Schmitt, who seems on the register because the lawyer of report on the 2014 software, argued that the case is barred by the dismissal of Clivillés‘ earlier problem.
Courts usually deal with a dismissal with prejudice as a full adjudication, Schmitt mentioned, and “you don’t get a second chunk on the apple.”
Clivillés‘ path to cancellation has narrowed for the reason that 2018 dismissal.
A registration will be attacked on precedence grounds solely inside 5 years of registration, a window that shut in July 2020.
USPTO information present the mark then cleared Sections 8 and 15 in August 2021, making it incontestable.
Two of the grounds that keep open at any time matter right here: a registration will be canceled if it was obtained fraudulently, or if it falsely suggests a reference to an individual, residing or useless.
Clivillés pleads fraud on the USPTO, and argues individually that Williams had no proper to say a mark consisting of two different individuals’s initials.Music Enterprise Worldwide
