Wise Startup Blog

50 Cent, the consummate promoter, entrepreneur, rapper, Vitamin Water rep, gamer, video gamer character, and now publicity stunt for Taco Bell is now suing Taco Bell for unfairly using his trademark.

50 Cent Has a Case Against Taco Bell

While I typically abhor these ridiculous lawsuits where the plaintiff is simply trying to pocket some money off of the larger, more innovative powerhouse. Most recently, with the RIMM vs. Patent Troll case we saw a holding company trying to bilk huge amounts of money out of RIMM. In that particular case, I felt the patent-holder was due a more moderate amount, and technology is really nothing without the will and action to do something, which RIMM definitely did.

Now in this case with Taco Bell, Taco Bell definitely was unfair in its use of 50 Cent’s brand. Taco Bell is promoting their 79, 89, and 99 cents price menu which feature various snacks all below 1 dollar. To promote it, they released an open letter to various media outlets requesting that 50 Cent change his name for a day to something like “79 Cent”.

Now this open letter would be fine given that 50 Cent was involved in the marketing plan and was going to receive his fair share of publicity as well as payment, but they did all of this without written express notice by 50 Cent. Despite 50 Cent’s major loss of street cred (which Rick Ross can speak to) for looking like a corporate chump, Curtis Jackson owns the right to his ‘50 Cent’ brand.

For his damages, Curtis Jackson is looking for $4 million, which depending on the value of his brand, this seems justified. So please, Taco Bell, the next time you plan to exploit someone, be sure to ask them first, and expect to have to pay for it.

Better yet, just write an open letter to a presidential candidate or public figure, and ask Barack Obama to change his name to Barack Chalupa Obama to take away all of that negative press from the whole Hussein thing and possibly garner some of the latin vote in the Presidential Election.