The New York Times has picked up on the story of pop star Bon Jovi’s legal efforts to flush a cold caffeinated beverage called Mijovi.
Bon Jovi contends that the Mijovi name and the marketing tagline “itsmilife” infringe on his brand.
The paper reports today that:
Mr. Bon Jovi faces an Oct. 31 deadline by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to formally oppose Mr. [Marcos] CarringtonÂ’s trademark. Mr. Bon Jovi has also threatened to sue.
Thus far, however, the singer and his lawyers seem to want nothing to do with the court of public opinion. Judging by the comments posted on redbankgreen after we linked to the original story in the Asbury Park Press in July, that’s no surprise. Nobody has yet written in to take his side.
From the Times:
Mr. Bon Jovi and his representatives have repeatedly declined to comment about the case since it became public earlier this year. More than a dozen calls to two lawyers for Mr. Bon Jovi have not been returned; requests for comment to those lawyers through e-mail also have gone unanswered.
And other attempts to reach Mr. Bon Jovi, like leaving a message with the staff member of the Arena Football League team that he owns, the Philadelphia Soul, have also been unsuccessful.
And:
“Bon Jovi creates music; Mijovi creates beverages,” Mr. Carrington said. “We were shocked to see that he would object to a positive beverage even if we shared these few syllables.”
Carrington, of East Brunswick (next door to Bon Jovi’s childhood home, Sayreville) told the Times that the flap has actually resulted in increased sales of his drink.
The Times says the beverage is available at 7,000 stores in central New Jersey.
In Red Bank, you can get it at Zebu Forno. That’s where John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. (later rebranded Bon Jovi) first saw it, according to the Press.
