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: The Once and Future Lawyer

Phillies Pitcher Punk'd: Ashton Kutcher files suit for copyright infringement

By 4L

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The internet news report tells of a horseplay practical joke that is sure to raise legal eyebrows involving copyrighted materials, trademark infringement, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Apparently, spring training has reached a fever pitch for the Phillies pitching staff as the right handers have aligned against the southpaws and orchestrated an elaborate prank against Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick. See Kendrick target of elaborate prank. The YouTube video can be found here. The short of it is that Kendrick was "punk'd" by his teammates, manager, and even his agent and the press into thinking that he was being traded to a Japanese team for a player named "Kobayashi Iwamura."

The long of it, however, is that it has sparked a legal hurricane of pain. One of my west coast BigLaw friends filled me in on a pending lawsuit filed today against those teammates who "punk'd" him. But, it's not just Kendrick who has jumped into the litigation bandwagon for his emotional distress; the lawsuit apparently involves Jason Goldberg and Ashton Kutcher, who believe that the joke infringes on their Punk'd concept (esp. with the explicit use of the phrase 'you've been punk'd!' at the end of the prank). They have also convinced the Central and Pacific Leagues of Japan to join as third parties under a beneficiary theory (because he had agreed to be traded away). And, they even found someone named Kobayashi Iwamura, who is apparently the Naked Cowboy of Toyko, and, like his American counterpart hopes to do, recently settled for an undisclosed amount against Mars Toyko for similar unauthorized use of his image under Japanese trademark laws. Even Takeru Kobayashi the hot dog eater has jumped in on this action. Needless to say, the merits of this suit are sure to raise significant awareness of the case against horseplay in the workplace.

And, the merits of this entry, lost its specter of truth after the first paragraph.