DJ Pauly D Trademark Infringement

Several of MTV’s ‘The Jersey Shore’ stars have been applying for trademarks to be used in product lines of different varieties. The use of celebrity trademarks has been an increasingly-popular way to try and capitalize on minor-league fame. But apparently, Jersey Shore star DJ Pauly D will have a harder time than most. Unfortunately for him, there is already a “DJ Paulie D” who has had a registered trademark with the USPTO since 2008. The reality show star has applied for a trademark 3 times, and been rejected for likelihood of confusion.

To make matters worse for the MTV star, the original DJ Paulie D has filed a lawsuit against him. The suit (Paul Lis DJ Paulie Broadcasting LLC v. Paul DelVecchio Jr., 3:11-cv-01057-AWT, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut) claims trademark infringement, since, as Techdirt.com points out, any recent Google search will indicate that DJ Paulie D is a misspelling for the far-more popular DJ Pauly D of Jersey Shore. The original DJ Paulie D is asking for $4 million in damages. And it seems somewhat likely he’ll get some awards for damages, since he’s claiming MTV used metatags to intentionally redirect traffic away from him. Regardless of whether he gets any money from Viacom (MTV’s owner), he has already created a ton of publicity for himself.