Yoko Ono sues Lennon for being Lennon
p2pnet news | Music:- Lennon Anne Murphy is named after John Lennon. The John Lennon.
She’s been performing as ‘Lennon’ for close to 10 years without a murmur of protest from any quarter.
Now, though, after all this time, she’s suddenly in trouble with Yoko Ono.
"Eight long hard years pass and no one says a word," says Lennon Anne, and then out of the blue, she’s accused of damaging the John Lennon name.
Says Lennon Anne on her web site >>>
Yesterday I received notice that Yoko Ono had filed a law suit against me, asking for a cancellation of the trademark that I own for the name ‘Lennon’," she says on her site, going on:
This could very well mean the career that I have worked so hard at, the one you all have believed in, may come to an end. I wanted to address the situation to all my fans because without you I am nothing and it’s not fair to everyone who has believed in my music not to be properly informed of this pure bullshit."
When I first started playing music at 14, I was known for the most part as "The Lennon Murphy Band". Not a name I was very fond of, no one could ever agree on anything so it made sense. A few months later some of the shows started being marketed using my full name as well as some that just using "Lennon." There was never really any consistancy but there was well enough to justify stating that "Lennon" had been used in fact since 1997. When I signed with Arista Records in 2000 at the age of 18, a marketing decision was made to continue being known just as Lennon. In all honesty, I didn’t care. I was just happy to sign a record deal, make an album, and pay my bills.
Lennon is my first name by birth and I am regualarly asked if I was named after the Beatle, having always replied no. My mother named me after "John Lennon that wrote songs, painted, and baked bread with his son". She named me for the man, not the pop star.
In 2000 Arista Records addressed the issue of Yoko Ono potentially having a problem with our use of the name. My product manager at Arista was ironically the son of the lawyer who actually represents Yoko. So he approached Yoko, to make her aware of the use, evidently giving her blessing as Arista proceeded forward with the album release and at the same time filing for the trademark. Its takes time for all of the legal work to go through, but finally in 2003 I was granted by the United States Patent & Trademark office the ownership in the name Lennon for musical use.
8 long hard years pass and no one says a word. Just 2 days before the statue of limitations was up this very same lawyer we went to in 2000 filed their complain. I accusing me of falsly representing myself and causing confusion in the market place that has damaged to the John Lennon name.
I’m not sure what confusion I could be causing since I don’t have the $50,000 to hire a lawyer and fight this. If people were confusing me with John Lennon and accidently buying my records I should have more than enough money to live my life and hire a lawyer? I wish that was the case. I haven’t worked since Oct. 2007, so I live on just enough to get through the months until I get back on the road. I have no idea what I’m going to do yet in this situation, and I’m stressed, angry, and scared.
This is my life. I have no respect for the name Murphy. It was my father’s name we will leave it at that. I have represented myself as Lennon because this is my name. That was the name that meant so much to my mother. That’s who I am. I’m pissed and hurt that someone in Yoko’s position has nothing better to do than fuck with my life, and collect the $25,000,000 a year that the John Lennon estate brings in. Yes, this is a real number or close enough to it. This is how I look at it. With that kind of income she probably pays more in taxes every year the you or I will make in our whole life time. So what do I have that can be of such value to her after 8 years. I don’t want to lose my name all because someone is bored in their life of luxury.
I don’t know what’s going to be the outcome, but I just wanted everyone to know what is going on. I never falsified my intentions, I never used John Lennon for my benefit, and I never took one cent out of Yoko’s bank account. I play music, my name is Lennon, and the most heartbreaking thing out of this whole situation is the insult it gives to my late mother and who she believed in; on top of demeaning the man that John Lennon was and will always be.
For as she wrote:
There is both a relief and a sadness when you finally break through to freedom. You wonder if the soil under your feet will remain constant or if the memories will ever shake out of your mind? Can I adjust to the silence? Should I fear the limited interruptions which sedate souls? I count my blessing, for these walls tell no tales of the horrors of the past. My child’s newly acquired goldfish know nothing of crushed dreams. The fishing gear I bought looks to the many days on the lake we can share with each other, a daughter and her mother. How odd to name a child after a gentle songwriter who loved his son and baked bread, what joy my lennon brings me.
Kathleen Murphy
All of you out there make me who I am, it’s just as much your business when someone wants to take it away.
Lennon
Definitely stay tuned.
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
February 13th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Wan’t Arista Records the one involved in harassment of its customers in the infamous “sue ‘em all” marketing campaign?
February 13th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Once again, this shows the problem regarding copyright and control.
The scenario is rather ironic, considering what John Lennon stood for.
Power to the people indeed…..
February 13th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Definately stupid… does that mean I can sue anyone with the same name as me?
February 13th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Sorry if this comes off as really crass, but I have to get it off my back.
FUCK YOKO!
FUCK THAT SELFISH, OLD WHORE!
SHE’S AN ASSAULT TO MUSIC!
HER MUSICS AN ASSAULT TO MUSIC!
AND PULLING THIS UTTER BULLSHIT!?
REALLY, FUCK THAT SPITEFUL, HATEFUL, HAS BEEN ONLY BY CONNECTION, BEATLES ENDING COW!!!
There, I feel better now
February 14th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
History repeats itself. When the Marx Bros. were threatened by Warner Bros. for using the name Casablanca in “A Night in Casablanca”, Groucho got a great letter off…
“Dear Warner Brothers,
Apparently there is more than one way of conquering a city and holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we contemplated making this picture, I had no idea that the city of Casablanca belonged exclusively to Warner Brothers. However, it was only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received your long, ominous legal document warning us not to use the name Casablanca.
It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, your great-great-grandfather, while looking for a shortcut to the city of Burbank, had stumbled on the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock (which he later turned in for a hundred shares of common), named it Casablanca.
I just don’t understand your attitude. Even if you plan on releasing your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don’t know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.
You claim that you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without permission. What about “Warner Brothers”? Do you own that too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about the name Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. We were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers when Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventor’s eye, and even before there had been other brothers—the Smith Brothers; the Brothers Karamazov; Dan Brothers, an outfielder with Detroit; and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (This was originally “Brothers, Can You Spare a Dime?” but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, so they threw out one brother, gave all the money to the other one, and whittled it down to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”)
Now Jack, how about you? Do you maintain that yours is an original name? Well it’s not. It was used long before you were born. Offhand, I can think of two Jacks—Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and Jack the Ripper, who cut quite a figure in his day.
As for you, Harry, you probably sign your checks sure in the belief that you are the first Harry of all time and that all other Harrys are impostors. I can think of two Harrys that preceded you. There was Lighthouse Harry of Revolutionary fame and a Harry Appelbaum who lived on the corner of 93rd Street and Lexington Avenue. Unfortunately, Appelbaum wasn’t too well-known. The last I heard of him, he was selling neckties at Weber and Heilbroner…”
February 16th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Wow. Hmmm…. It’s not like she’s saying that she is the ONLY Lennon, or thats she’s THE Lennon. I bet that there are lots of musicians with the name ” Lennon. ” If that’s the way she’s going to think about it, why not sue all of them? Pretty unfair.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:32 am
I don’t think you can sue an artist for using her own name, plus it’s not at all confusing as everyone knows John is dead, and Lennon being a girl sounds nothing like him, unless she is singing his songs, which she’s allowed to do anyway, as long as she doesn’t change the words.
I think she should hire a lawyer who will work pro bono in exchange for a percentage of the counter suit. Many would gladly risk it, as it doesn’t cost them much even if they lost, but since the chance of winning is so high (about 95% I’d say), that shouldn’t be a problem.
If it is, she could try the EFF
March 8th, 2008 at 6:45 am
It’s not like it’s even her surname so there’s no confusion that she even might be related, and there’s no fraud or deception going on. I think Yoko is being over-sensitive and a bit silly about it. Litigation isn’t the solution to everything. Did she even talk to Lennon about it? If she can do what I suggested previously and if the case went against her, nothing is lost anyway except she’d have to change her stage name. Since she is already poor it couldn’t be worse. Look at the bright side, many people including myself have never heard of her, and this could get a great deal of publicity, which would be a good thing.