It emerged yesterday that Sony had initiated a suit against Bridgestone and advertising firm Wildcat Creek back in September, over the involvement of Jerry Lambert (who is also president of Wildcat) in various Bridgestone promotions. Lambert is the actor who portrayed fake Sony executive ‘Kevin Butler’ in several PlayStation adverts.
Sony claims Lambert’s participation, including a Bridgestone advert in which he plays Mario Kart on a Nintendo Wii, show “violations of the Lanham Act, misappropriation, breach of contract and tortious interference with a contractual relationship”.
Bridgestone has now responded to the claims made in that lawsuit, stating: “Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer.”
“Bridgestone denies that ‘Kevin Butler’ appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial.”
It appears Bridgestone intends to fight the suit on the basis that there is no likelihood of confusion between consumers, and that Sony failed to register any mark on ‘Kevin Butler’.
Sony, meanwhile, contends that Lambert began working with Bridgestone “in or around” February 2012, when (Sony claims) he was still under contract with Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA).
Source: Hollywood Reporter
