Do You Feel Lucky, Punk? - Clint Eastwood Awarded $6.1Million in CBD Lawsuit
Clint Eastwood has emerged victorious in a law battle against a group of cannabis companies that illegally used his name and images to promote their cannabis gummies.
At least Eastwood isn't losing on both ends, critics say that his latest stint at the box office is not all that…
Although the film titled Cry Macho has not brought in the expected streams, we're more than certain that the 91-year-old actor/director had the best week once he discovered he got awarded a whopping $6.1 for suing and winning his lawsuit against the Lithuanian company.
Having to pay over 6 million dollars for falsely using a celebrity's identity ought to teach the company and others to desist from such acts.
How it all started
Sometime last year, rumors started that Clint Eastwood was leaving his job as an actor and director in Hollywood to sell cannabis products.
The false claim prompted Eastwood and Garrapata, the company that has full rights to his likeness, to sue the culpable companies for their roles in the rumors. He demanded payment for damages worth millions of dollars and also requested for a court order to force the companies to remit all profits made using his likeness to him.
The Hollywood legend at the time was furious at these CBD Manufacturers as well as their marketers for framing him as an ambassador for their products with the use of web metadata and spam emails. The companies even went as far as to fabricate false interviews and fake news articles to drive home the points in their false claims.
A fabricated online interview that went around last year showed Eastwood confidently saying that he had found something bigger and better than movies in selling CBD products. In the article, his likeness also said that the decision to leave Hollywood was very hard to make.
People were confused at the time as to why Eastwood would be ditching Tinseltown to hawk CBD products at the age of 90. By filing these lawsuits at the federal court in Los Angeles, Clint Eastwood was able to clear the air.
He refuted all rumored connections to the products themselves, as well as the three parent companies. Eastwood also stated in the court papers that he had not given any interview whatsoever. The actor's representatives said that suing the companies and others involved was the right way to go.
What they did by using programming codes to insert Eastwood's name and lines into online search results for the company's CBD products was an attempt to mislead the public into thinking the legend himself was involved.
Winning The Case
At the time trademark infringement and defamation lawsuits were filed, Eastwood had had no idea of the identity of Mediatonas. All he knew were the websites that had hosted the false articles about him to mislead people into purchasing the CBD products.
In February this year, he traced the websites to Mediatonas, and he immediately filed an amended complaint.
The Lithuanian company refused to reply to the summons or appear in court to reply to the charges issued against them, and as such a default judgment was carried out.
In June, the court reduced Eastwood's initial request for $30 million for monetary damages to less than $7 million. The court settled on this amount because this is the official amount Eastwood would have charged the company if he had been approached to endorse the product, as well as run an online campaign for at least 16 months.
In addition to the monetary damages that would be paid, the Lithuanian cannabis company will foot the bill for Clint Eastwood's attorneys which is about $90,000. Another upside to winning the lawsuit is the permanent injunction that Eastwood has obtained to prevent Mediatonas from using his name or likeness to promote their goods in the future.
The court was able to establish that the Hollywood actor has only ever allowed his name to be licensed once. This was for the super bowl commercial which was based on America's resilience and recovery from the Great Recession. Judge Gary found out that the only reason Eastwood agreed to the super bowl gig was that he felt drawn to the theme.
Clint Eastwood could have made a fortune if he had endorsed the Mediatonas brand while the legal battle was on. This is because the Lithuanian company is more or less unknown, and to sell the product, their work would have to rely solely on the actor's influence.
With the mixed reactions cannabis is getting around the country, there's a possibility that Eastwood's stellar reputation would have taken a blow.
Winning the lawsuit means a lot to Mr. Eastwood. In his press release to Rolling Stone, he stated how very pleased he was with the way things turned out at court.
According to him, the judgment will be passed along to other online scammers who may have been thinking of ways to illegally use a celebrity's name, likeness, and reputation to market their products.
He was unable to convince the court that the illegal use of his name and identity was enough to account for defamation.
The Man Called Clint Eastwood
Not many people can boast of having a Hollywood career that spans 60 years and still counting. Clint Eastwood is one that not only has a stellar acting reputation, he is also known for his work ethic and public service.
Some of his popular works include Million dollar baby, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and his most recent work being Cry Macho.
Takeaway
Mr. Eastwood stood his ground and was willing to do the right and fair thing during the legal proceedings of this case.
He has proved that he will always be willing to correct any wrongdoing or smear campaign to ruin his reputation.
Holding Mediatonas accountable for their actions will prevent others from trying to profit off his name, images, likeness, and even goodwill through illegal means.
Once again, Clint Eastwood has proven that he has no connection or affiliation whatsoever to any cannabis product.
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