Jay-Z Sues Red Sox Slugger David Ortiz Over 40/40 Club Name
Photo: Rogash/Getty(Ortiz), Trotman/Getty(Jay-Z)
The heated Yankees-Red Sox rivalry has branched into the rap game. Jay-Z, a diehard Yankees fan who even wore the team’s cap on the cover of Kingdom Come, is suing Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz for allegedly using the name of Jigga’s 40/40 Club chain for his own nightclub in the Dominican Republic without permission. In a lawsuit filed yesterday, Jay accuses Big Papi of naming his Santa Domingo nightclub “Forty-Forty,” a variation of Jay-Z and Juan Perez’s line of 40/40 Clubs in New York, Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
“[Jay-Z and Perez] have accused Ortiz of trading on the fame, value and goodwill of their name through his club Forty/Forty and its website, www.fortyforty.net, which they say has caused their business ‘marketplace confusion and damage,” reads the lawsuit. Jay-Z’s suit goes on to argue that the shared name isn’t accidental, as Ortiz “has been a patron [at the 40/40 Club] on several occasions long before he opened his infringing Forty/Forty Club.”
As Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” all but soundtracked the Yankees’ World Series-winning run last season, it’s no surprise that he might take offense to someone not named Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez opening a club with the “40/40″ name. The baseball blog Big League Stew points out the “40/40″ moniker comes from when a player achieves both 40 home runs and 40 steals in one season. Only four players in history have done it — including current Yank A-Rod — but Big Papi hasn’t come close, managing only 10 steals total over the course of his entire 14-year baseball career. (To Ortiz’s credit, he has hit a Red Sox record 54 home runs in a season, but then why not the “Fifty-Ten Club”?)
No word whether Jay-Z is seeking compensation, a club name change or maybe just an apology from Ortiz for his Game Four, 12th inning, course-of-history-changing walk-off home run against the Yankees in the 2004 playoffs.
On a Jigga side note, the Blueprint 3 rapper will headline tonight’s festivities at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California. Tune into the brand new Rollingstone.com this weekend for our full report.
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JZ……..overrated punk
To hell with that ugly Jiz-Z. Guy is money hungry, power hungry and has a colossal ego. He should be a little more humble.
Shawn Carter should sue Mr. Ortiz. He knew when he used the name spelled out or numbered what he was doing. This is not an accident. This is an infringement. Plue Mr. Carter is only part owner he has two other partners.
I’m suing the first poster here for copyright infringement.
Ahh Jay-Z is losing his gangsta style – Jeeezz – Fuck Z!
* If Ortiz opened his club in the US, then there may be an argument, but there are plenty of night clubs in different states with the same name, but they have different, unassociated owners.
Ortiz’s club isn’t in the US. It’s in the Dominican Republic, a sovereign nation with it’s own intellectual property laws. The US does not have jurisdiction to dictate to the Dominican Rebuplic what Ortiz can or cannot do there. This lawsuit should be thrown out for being a baseless claim, as the implied basis is that US intellectual property law applies to Ortiz’s activities in the Dominican Republic, which is untrue. The US needs to stop interfering in other nation’s policy, especially if human rights are not being infringed upon. If Ortiz opened his club in the US, then there may be an argument, but there are plenty of night clubs in different states with different, unassociated owners
Seriously how childish is this, it’s a club and a name. Really suing someone over a club name. the clubs aren’t even in the same state let alone the same country, he needs to get over it and move on, he don’t own any clubs in the Dominican Republic.
can the public sue the celebrities for squabbling over how many millions of dollars they each have? cant they do something better with their time?
Next thing you know, Jay-Z will be suing doctors for the use of 20/20, since he’ll have to rename his club for being 1/2 as good as he thinks it is.