Trademark Law, Business Law – Will Chris Bosh’s tougher matchup be Carlos Boozer or Basketball Wives?

As Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat prepares to take on the Chicago Bulls and we find out which underachieving star power forward (Bosh or the Bulls’ Carlos Boozer) can break through to the NBA Finals, we find that Bosh is able to multi-task enough to recently file a very fascinating lawsuit against his former girlfriend and the producer of the VH1 reality show, Basketball Wives.

The former girlfriend, Allison Mathis, reportedly signed to appear on the next season of Basketball Wives.  For those who have not had the privilege of watching Basketball Wives, the show focuses on several past and present wives and girlfriends of past and present NBA players. Bosh contends Mathis will be falsely bad-mouthing Bosh’s parenting skills (Mathis is the mother of Bosh’s child) and imply that she has special insight into Bosh’s life as a “Basketball Wife.”

As a result, Bosh says this will damage his trademark as a role model for children; damage Bosh’s “life rights;” and deceive viewers into thinking Mathis is married to Bosh, has special insight into Bosh’s current life, and that Bosh approved of Mathis’ involvement with the show.

This lawsuit raises a lot of novel issues and the LT Pacific Law blog will watch this case with great interest (that is, if the case continues since now it appears Mathis may not appear on the show after all).  For more on this case, click here.



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