{"id":2403,"date":"2024-08-26T18:57:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T18:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/new-lawsuit-says-johnnys-widow-infringes-band-ip\/"},"modified":"2024-08-26T18:57:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T18:57:52","slug":"new-lawsuit-says-johnnys-widow-infringes-band-ip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/new-lawsuit-says-johnnys-widow-infringes-band-ip\/","title":{"rendered":"New Lawsuit Says Johnny’s Widow Infringes Band IP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a new front in the never-ending legal war between Joey Ramone\u2019s brother and Johnny Ramone\u2019s widow over control of the iconic punk band.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a new lawsuit filed Friday (Aug. 23) in Manhattan federal court, Joey\u2019s brother Mitchel Hyman (better known as Mickey Leigh) accused Johnny\u2019s wife, Linda Cummings-Ramone, of violating federal trademark law by carrying out an \u201cunrelenting quest\u201d to associate herself with the Ramones.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs is typical of the nasty dispute between the two heirs (who each control exactly half of the band\u2019s holding company), the lawsuit pulled no punches \u2014 calling Cummings-Ramone a former \u201cgroupie\u201d with an \u201cinsatiable personal desire to shine a spotlight on herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMs. Cummings-Ramone has made and continues to make blatant attempts to exploit and personally capitalize on and benefit from the name, goodwill and legacy of the Ramones \u2014 that is, to try to push the false narrative that she is the heiress to \u2026 the Ramones\u2019 legacy,\u201d \u00a0Leigh\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cShe most certainly is not. She is nothing more than a blatant self-promoter and an infringer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJoey Ramone (Jeffrey Ross Hyman) and Johnny Ramone (John William Cummings) were not actually brothers, and they had a notoriously chilly relationship during their decades as bandmates. In the years since the two died in the 2000s, that feud has seemingly continued between Leigh and Cummings-Ramone.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the executors of Joey\u2019s and Johnny\u2019s respective estates, Leigh and Cummings-Ramone each own half of Ramones Productions, the entity that controls the band\u2019s music and other assets. But that partnership has not gone smoothly, featuring multiple lawsuits and arbitrations over the past decade.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe latest scuffle began in January, when Cummings-Ramone sued Leigh in New York state court over allegations that he had \u201ccovertly\u201d developed an \u201cunauthorized\u201d biopic (believed to be Netflix\u2019s announced Ramones movie starring Pete Davidson as Joey). In the lawsuit, Cummings-Ramone said that any \u201cauthoritative story of the Ramones\u201d would require her sign-off: \u201cTo permit defendants alone to tell the authoritative story of the Ramones would be an injustice to the band and its legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEight months later, with the earlier case still pending, Leigh is now on offense \u2014 claiming that Cummings-Ramone has infringed the band\u2019s trademarks held by Ramones Productions by using them herself. His new case repeatedly takes aim at her use of the name \u201cLinda Ramone\u201d despite the fact that \u201cRamone\u201d was not the legal surname of her late husband nor any other band member.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRamones are unique in many ways. One of which is that they are the only band of stature where all the members were not related but used the same last name as if they were,\u201d Leigh\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cThat made it easy for defendant to insert herself into the Ramones legacy as part of the family, the public spokesperson, and to associate her personal brand with Ramones, by using the name \u2018Linda Ramone.\u2019 Indeed, \u2018Linda Ramone\u2019 never existed while her husband, John Cummings was alive. Defendant increasingly adopted the name \u2018Linda Ramone\u2019 after Mr. Cummings died.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit claims that earlier legal proceedings and agreements have sharply restricted how Cummings-Ramone is allowed to use that name, but that she has repeatedly exceeded those limitations in her public persona because she is \u201cunabashedly obsessed with portraying herself as the widow of Johnny Ramone\u201d and as an \u201cintegral member\u201d of the band.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMs. Cummings-Ramone presents herself to the world as \u2018Linda Ramone\u2019 and unilaterally adopts the mantle of designated Ramones spokesperson and \u2018keeper of the legacy\u2019,\u201d Leigh\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cShe intentionally gives the false impression that she is empowered to take the lead on, or unilaterally pursue, Ramones business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA representative for Cummings-Ramone did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday (Aug. 26).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a new front in the never-ending legal war between Joey Ramone\u2019s brother and Johnny Ramone\u2019s widow over control of the iconic punk band. In a new lawsuit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1105,3170,3169,303,1473],"class_list":["post-2403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-band","tag-infringes","tag-johnnys","tag-lawsuit","tag-widow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}