Clint Eastwood got a huge win in court after a judge awarded the Hollywood legend $2 million in a trademark lawsuit case.
Eastwood sued a CBD retailer for stealing his name and likeness for promotional purposes.
The company had used images of Eastwood to promote their products without his permission.
“Without Mr. Eastwood’s knowledge of permission, online retailers of CBD products strategically place Mr. Eastwood’s name within blog posts and webpage meta descriptions as a means to promote CBD products and guide customers to an online marketplace that sells CBD products,” Eastwood’s lawsuit said.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney agreed with Eastwood and granted a default judgment in his favor, ruling that he proved his trademark infringement claims.
Eastwood was asking for $3 million but the judge decided on the $2 million settlement, writing:
“$2 million is a reasonable representation of the fair market value of Mr. Eastwood’s services in lending his influential and known name to a hidden metatag campaign for products he likely would have been unwilling to endorse in the first place.”
“We are pleased with the Court’s decision as it recognizes the substantial harm that false endorsements cause,” said Eastwood’s attorney Jordan Susman.
“It further sends a message to such offenders that they cannot evade liability by ignoring the legal system.
“This is a judgment we look forward to collecting.”
Clint Eastwood has filed a pair of lawsuits over the way that CBD retailers are using his name to promote their products online.
The complaints lodged Wednesday in California federal court take issue with everything from allegedly fabricated news articles to the use of metadata.
The 90-year-old actor-director has repeatedly gone to court throughout his career to protect his name and image.
He boasts of winning a jury trial against the National Enquirer in the 1990s. He’s also attained settlements such as the time a few years ago when a furniture maker thought it’d be a good idea to sell ottomans and chairs named “Clint” and “Eastwood.”
This time, he’s shooting at the cannabidiol industry.
“This action arises from an online scam that uses a false, defamatory, and wholly fabricated ‘news article’ about Mr. Eastwood to promote and sell cannabidiol (‘CBD’) products,” states one complaint.
“Under the headline ‘Big Pharma In Outrage Over Clint Eastwood’s CBD: [Name of CBD Product] – He Fires Back With This!’, the fraudulent ‘article’ prominently features photographs of Mr. Eastwood and references a fabricated interview with Mr. Eastwood in which he touts his purported line of CBD products.
In truth, Mr. Eastwood has no connection of any kind whatsoever to any CBD products and never gave such an interview.”
