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Diddy Sues His Former Clothing Company Sean John For $25M For Using His Image

Diddy Sues His Former Clothing Company Sean John For $25M For Using His Image

Sean John
Diddy Sues His Former Clothing Company Sean John For $25M For Using His Image. Photo: Sean Combs participates in “The Four” panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour on  Jan. 4, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

The Sean John fashion lifestyle company created by entrepreneur and hip-hop artist Sean Combs shook up men’s fashion in the late ’90s. Launched in 1998, it became a quick success.

Combs sold a majority stake in the company in 2016 to Global Brand Groups (GBG) for $70 million. Now, he’s suing his former company for $25 million in a lawsuit accusing GBG of falsely attributing a quote to him to promote a new clothing line.

The lawsuit, filed on Feb. 4 in New York, claims that Sean John created a new collaborative line with women’s clothing retailer Missguided and illegally used Diddy’s image, likeness, and persona without his consent, Rolling Out reported.

Combs said he never endorsed the line and claimed he never gave Sean John, Missguided, and GBG permission to use his name.

At the time of the sell to GBG, it was reported that Diddy was to maintain a 20 percent stake in the company, Yahoo reported.

“The SJ/Missguided Agreement was entered into without Mr. Combs’s knowledge, approval, or consent,” the lawsuit stated. “And Mr. Combs has never endorsed the GBG Collection, which is branded ‘sean john x missguided’ and ‘Sean John x Missguided.’ Mr. Combs has neither granted Defendants the right to use his name, image, likeness, or persona in conjunction with the GBG Collection nor has he agreed to make a public statement or appearance in support of the GBG Collection.”

This is the second lawsuit Combs has filed against GBG. In January 2021 he filed a suit claiming that the Sean John line used his trademarked phrase “Vote Or Die” to sell merchandise with the slogan during the presidential election campaign, Rolling Out reported.

Diddy claimed GBG stole the “Vote Or Die” phrase from the nonprofit he established, Citizen Change, and is illegally using the saying on T-shirts and other merchandise on SeanJohn.com.

Diddy launched Citizen Change in 2004 intending to increase youth and minority participation in local and national electoral politics, All Hip Hop reported. Diddy also registered “Vote Or Die” in 2004 to promote the slogan on T-shirts, in commercials, and during voter registration drives.

Diddy backed the massive “Vote Or Die” campaign, which featured celebrities in marketing campaigns such as Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton Ashton Kutcher, and Ellen DeGeneres, encouraging young people to get out and vote.

The U.S. Patent And Trade Office (USPTO) granted Citizen Change the official trademark registration for “Vote Or Die” in 2010. However, Citizen Change’s “Vote Or Die” trademark was canceled by the USPTO on Dec. 2, 2016, for failure to file renewal documents, All Hip Hop reported.

Then in November 2019, GBG/Sean applied to obtain ownership of the “Vote Or Die” trademark. In August 2020, Diddy’s lawyer charged that GBG submitted false statements to the USPTO to make it seem as though Diddy was still affiliated with the Sean John brand. These false claims, said Diddy’s camp, led the USPTO to grant the company the rights to the “Vote Or Die” trademark.

When Diddy’s lawyer raised the issue, GBG/Sean John agreed in 2020 to assign and transfer the trademark application back to Citizen Change, but the company has refused to honor the transfer, All Hip Hop reported.

Things got even messier when in September of 2020, Diddy registered a new trademark for the slogan “Vote Or Die!” (ending with an exclamation). In October 2020, Diddy launched a Vote Or Die! branded town hall meeting with Dr. Cornel West and actor-director Kerry Washington.

Following Diddy’s move, GSB and Sean John debuted a marketing campaign using the same “Vote Or Die” slogan, and even included an exclamation point at the end of the phrase.

Diddy’s “Vote or Die” lawsuit is ongoing.

While that case is still being battled, Diddy has taken the company to court again with his latest suit.

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“[Diddy] does not challenge [Sean John/GBG’s] right to use the Sean John trademark, but rather [Sean John/GBG’s] decision to leverage a fabricated quote they created and then falsely attributed to Mr. Combs, and to use Mr. Combs’s name and other monikers to create the false and misleading impression that Mr. Combs is the decision-maker behind the designs and creation of the GBG Collection,” Jonathan Davis told All Hip Hop about the latest lawsuit.

He continued, “Sean John, GBG, and Missguided are using the unapproved material, which contains false or misleading representations of fact, to promote and sell the items in the GBG Collection because they understand that associating it with Mr. Combs will significantly increase sales and profits.”