LeBron James’ Company Sued for Trademark Infringement

Los Angeles – LeBron James’ company, Uninterrupted, is being sued by Sebastian Jackson’s company, Adventure Enterprise, for trademark infringement. Jackson claims that Uninterrupted infringed his barbershop theme and “Shop Talk” trademark when creating the show “The Shop.” The Show made its debut during the 2017 NBA season and features LeBron James, Draymond Green, Charles Oakley, 2 Chainz, and others.

The barbershop themed shows both include guest speakers who talk about past experiences and success stories as they get their hair cut. Jackson trademarked the “Shop Talk” concept in 2016, listing it as an “organization of events for cultural purposes.” Jackson claims that for two years he and Cree Nix, an employee of Uninterrupted, engaged in many conversations via text message and e-mail about the concept behind the show.

After the first episode of LeBron James’ show aired, Jackson immediately tried to get in contact with associates of Uninterrupted. Jackson alleges that upon speaking with Rodney James from the company, Jackson was told the episode was a “one-time thing” and claims Rodney even showed regret. Since then, another two episodes of the “The Shop” have aired, the second in March. This is what urged Jackson to continue to defend the trademark.

In August of 2017, Jackson sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Uninterrupted with no answer. Ironically, very recently Uninterrupted sent a cease and desist letter about copyright and trademark infringement to the University of Alabama over another web series titled “Shop Talk” that is barbershop themed. The University of Alabama show features Nick Saban, Alabama’s football coach, and Julio Jones. In response the school has changed the name of the show to “Bama Cuts” but continues to release episodes. Nick Saban himself announced that the show will go on and that he doesn’t consider it to be a copyright infringement.

Jackson’s company is suing Uninterrupted for an injunction to stop production, damages for the trademark infringement, and the show’s profits. Although Jackson owns a registered trademark, he may have to at least partly rely on his common law rights to “Shop Talk” because the services listed in the application do not exactly cover the services of the alleged infringement.