This time Nirvana are the ones being sued as they have been involved in a suit against the clothing line Mark Jacobs for use of the Nirvana smiley face. Now they are the ones being sued for use of the image “Danta’s Map of Upper Hell” by C.W. Scott Giles. His granddaughter Jocelyn Susan Bundy filed the suit last Wednesday claiming that Nirvana have been using the image on various merch items since 1989. Jocelyn claims she only became aware of the usage in January of this year. Some of the claims in the suit are as follows
- Some of the unauthorized uses of the Illustration on Nirvana-branded merchandise date as far back as 1989.
- Nirvana and parties acting on its behalf have routinely made false claims of ownership of the copyright in the Illustration by placing false copyright notices on the Infringing Products.
- Nirvana has implied that Kurt Cobain created the Illustration or, in the alternative, that the Illustration is in the public domain in the United States, and that, therefore, Nirvana and its licensees are free to use it without authorization or compensation.
Blabbermouth has an image comparison right here and to be honest it’s pretty close to the exact same thing.
