Beastie Boys v Chili’s: copyright fight over ‘Sabotage’ song

Categories: Copyright, Copyright Infringement

Ellis Sweetenham
August 12, 2024

The Hip Hop group ‘The Beastie Boys’ have locked horns with the parent company who owns ‘Chili’s’ Restaurant over their latest social media campaign.

Brinker International own Chili’s Grill & Bar, a popular US restaurant chain. In their November 2022 social media advertisement, they have created a fictional police drama scene, accompanied by the Beastie Boys song ‘Sabotage’.

This has not gone down well with the group!

The group have filed a claim against the restaurant owner, claiming that the social media video depicts very similar characters and a similar storyline to the video for ‘Sabotage’ and usings a sample of the song, all without the group’s permission. They argue that the use of the song and references to the video will bring their popular work to the mind of the public, allowing Brinker to benefit from their reputation.

The group, who include Michael “Mike-D” Diamond, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch (who is being represented by his wife in the claim) state that they have not provided any permissions or authorisation for any of their intellectual property, including the ‘Sabotage’ song and music video to feature in any third party advertising.

The claim requests a minimum of $150,000 in damages, with legal costs on top. This could increase if the Judge or Jury sees fit.

With many of these matters, these are normally settled behind closed doors with an undisclosed settlement. However there has been no reaction from Brinker at present so this may go all the way!

If you would like to discuss copyright infringement or how to protect your works, please get in touch with the team today.

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Written By:

Ellis Sweetenham

Ellis is a contentious and non-contentious intellectual property (IP) solicitor at Lawdit Solicitors. Ellis also is an the Director and an intellectual property law consultant at Lawdit’s sister company Trademarkroom. Ellis qualified as a solicitor in 2019, and over her qualified years has gained valuable experience in all contentious and non- contentious matters relating to trade marks, copyright, designs and patents. Ellis has represented clients in a variety of matters, including those relating to infringement, licensing, oppositions, cancellations, invalidations, assignment, portfolio management, pre-filing due diligence and registration. This includes matters before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, UK Intellectual Property Office, EU Intellectual Property Office and Word Intellectual Property Organisation. In addition to IP matters, Ellis is also experienced in other commercial law matters, including music law, defamation, data protection, civil litigation and commercial disputes. Ellis has built a reputation for being detail-focused and thorough, always available to provide clients with the highest level of client care. Ellis acts with the highest level of professionalism to ensure that her clients are well informed and their best interests are at the centre of all advice given and action taken. Ellis is a regular on the Lawdit Solicitors Mark Wing Podcast, and has written many legal articles, both for Lawdit and Trademarkroom’s reading room, as well as for external IP publications. Ellis is based in our Isle of Wight office.