Jay Z Slapped With $600M Trademark Lawsuit Over Name 'Brooklyn Nets'

Legal trouble for Jay Z in sight. As RadarOnline.com points out, the mogul has been named as a defendant in a $600M lawsuit by a disgruntled entrepreneur who claims that he trademarked the name “Brooklyn Nets” long before the NBA team ever moved out of New Jersey. The Plaintiff, Dr. Francois de Cassagnol, filed a pro se complaint with the Eastern District of the State of New York on December 9, 2013, asking for a juried trial over the matter and $600 million in damages.

As the court documents show, de Cassagnol claims that the NBA, Jay Z, and developer Bruce Ratner ”fraudulently conspired” to use “loopholes” in the U.S. Patent Office so that they could use a term he says he registered more than ten years ago. In addition, he claims that before the team moved to Brooklyn, he spoke with officials at the New Jersey Nets organization and the NBA who assured him that the team would not use the term “Brooklyn Nets,” but would most likely opt for “New York Nets.” Unfortunately, he claims, “It was pure mismanagement of the facts.”

A previous appeal to the Patent Office found in favor of the NBA. Documents from that proceeding show that the review board determined de Cassagnol had filed his paperwork long after reports emerged about the team moving to Brooklyn, and that “none of the described uses” of his Brooklyn Nets businesses were significant enough to overrule the NBA’s federal trademark application. De Cassagnol initially filed with the State of Louisiana.

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