Yoko Ono and the film company World Wide Media are in a legal battle over who owns the rights to some undoubtedly priceless footage of John Lennon filmed in 1970. The nine hours of material are claimed to include Lennon smoking a joint, working on songs and describing his plans to put LSD in Richard Nixon’s coffee. It was filmed by Anthony Cox, Ono’s husband before Lennon, for a planned documentary. World Wide wants to use the footage for a film titled “Three Days In The Life.” Despite the fact that World Wide bought the footage directly from Cox, Ono feels she owns the copyright because she’d previously bought the footage from “a Florida man.” If you play that backwards, I’m pretty sure you hear the word “bullshit.”
So earlier this week we brought you the story of Lennon Murphy, a Florida hard rocker who was attempting to trademark her first name since it also happens to be the name of her band. This news had apparently aroused the ire of Yoko Ono, administrator of the estate of one John Lennon; Ono was widely reported to have filed a lawsuit against Murphy for her trademarking efforts. Murphy quickly fired back on her own Web site, claiming that A.) Ono didn’t seem to have a problem when the “Lennon” name was previously trademarked by Murphy back in 2003; B.) she doesn’t have the $50k (!) to spend on legal fees that she would need to fight such a suit; and C.) that it was ridiculous to think anyone would mistake a female-fronted heavy rock band with the beyond-ubiquitous work of one of the most famous rock stars on the planet. And now Ono has sent out her own statement to various Web publications that have covered the story–including one in our very own comments box–claiming that she is not suing Murphy after all, just asking the trademark people to not grant Murphy her re-up. Idolator reader YokoOnoLennon‘s full remarks about the week-long Lennon saga are after the jump.
Hard-rock singer Lennon Murphy, who is being sued by Yoko Ono for trademarking her first name–which is also the name of her band–has spoken out about the suit, and why she has the name she does: “My mother named me after ‘John Lennon that wrote songs, painted, and baked bread with his son.’ She named me for the man, not the pop star”–and this lawsuit, she claims, is not only tainting the memory of her mother, it’s “demeaning the man that John Lennon was and will always be.” (Also, as she points out, if she was really being confused with the ex-Beatle as much as the lawsuit implies, she would have a lot more money–presumably enough to at least make the $50k she needs to get a lawyer to fight Ono in court seem like not as big of a deal as it clearly is to her. Which, whether you agree with Ono or not, is kind of a salient point, especially when you realize that Lennon’s estate rakes in about $25 million a year. Look at the photo: It’s not like we’re talking about Gallagher/Gallagher II level-confusion here, you know?) Lennon’s full statement, taken from her drowning-in-traffic Web site, after the jump.
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