Lady Gaga is no stranger to design controversies. After all, she once wore a meat dress. But the latest one is a little surprising. She’s being sued by a surfboard company that claims she stole its logo design.
Lost International makes surfboards and apparel emblazoned with a logo that reads ‘Mayhem’ in type that could have come straight from our guide to the best Halloween fonts. It thinks Mother Monster’s logo on merchandise for her new album and upcoming Mayhem is too similar.
Mayhem in the hood. Lady Gaga’s Mayhem hoodie (left) and one of surfboard company Lost International’s offering (right) (Image credit: Lost International / Lady Gaga)
Lost International claims that the logo on Lady Gaga’s Mayhem merchandise is “substantially similar if not nearly identical to” its own trademark, which it says it’s held since 2015. It wants $100 million in damages and claims that communications sent to Gaga’s team went unanswered.
As we see in the image from the lawsuit above, both brands are using the world ‘Mayhem’ in stylised type and putting it on hoodies. Nearly identical? Hmm… Come on guys, surely you’re both just riffing on the OG from a certain Norwegian black metal band that would very much have approved of that meat dress. Now this is how you make a hoodie with an illegible logo:
A hoodie with the logo of the black metal band Mayhem (Image credit: Mayhem via necroharmonic.com)
Lady Gaga’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, said in a statement: “Lady Gaga’s Mayhem soared to No. 1 and shattered records, a testament to her unmatched talent and global impact. It’s disappointing –but hardly surprising – that someone is now attempting to capitalize on her success with a baseless lawsuit over the name ‘Mayhem’. This is nothing more than an opportunistic and meritless abuse of the legal system.”
