Bravado, Common Music Group’s merchandise and model administration division, has received a court docket order authorizing the seizure of counterfeit merchandise from bootleggers at A$AP Rocky‘s live shows.
US District Choose Sim Lake signed a brief restraining order and seizure order on Wednesday (June 17) within the Southern District of Texas (Houston Division), overlaying live shows on the rapper’s Don’t Be Dumb World Tour.
The order (which you’ll be able to see right here) utilized to A$AP Rocky‘s Toyota Middle present in Houston on Saturday (June 20) and stays in impact pending a show-cause listening to on Wednesday (July 1), at which Bravado will search a preliminary injunction overlaying the remainder of the tour
It adopted a trademark infringement grievance and ex parte software that Bravado filed on Thursday (June 11).
Bravado states within the grievance that it holds the unique proper to make use of the A$AP Rocky emblems on tour merchandise, pursuant to an settlement with the artist.
The lawsuit names John Does 1-100, Jane Does 1-100, and XYZ Firm as defendants, described as people and entities “who’re sued herein underneath fictitious names as a result of their true names and capacities are unknown at the moment.”
The grievance states that it “can be amended when their true names and capacities are ascertained.”
In response to the submitting, A$AP Rocky holds Federal Trademark Registration No. 7562837 for the A$AP Rocky mark, overlaying clothes, leisure companies, and musical sound recordings.
The grievance alleges that the defendants “will promote and distribute unauthorized, infringing T-shirts, jerseys, caps and/or different merchandise bearing any or all the Artist’s Logos” within the neighborhood of live shows on the tour.
“The Infringing Merchandise is of the identical normal look as Plaintiff‘s Approved Tour Merchandise and is more likely to trigger confusion amongst potential purchasers,” the submitting reads.
“The Infringing Merchandise bought by Defendants is usually of inferior high quality.”
The grievance states that the sale of counterfeit items is “more likely to trigger the buying public to imagine that the sale and distribution of such Infringing Merchandise is allowed, sponsored or accepted by the Artist and/or Plaintiff.”
It provides that such exercise “additionally injures the Artist and Plaintiff in that Defendants should not have to pay any royalty for these illegal gross sales.”
The lawsuit brings two causes of motion: infringement of a registered trademark underneath 15 U.S.C. § 1114(b), and false designation of origin underneath Part 43(a) of the Lanham Act.
Below the order, the defendants are briefly restrained from making, distributing or promoting merchandise bearing the A$AP Rocky emblems.
It authorizes the US Marshal, state and native police, and Bravado’s brokers to grab infringing items “from three (3) hours earlier than to 3 (3) hours after any efficiency of the tour.”
The seizure energy covers a three-mile neighborhood of the venues and reaches any district through which Bravado enforces the order.
It was conditioned on Bravado posting a $5,000 bond by Thursday (June 18), and on the corporate overlaying any charges charged by the legislation enforcement officers it makes use of.
On the July 1 listening to, the defendants can present trigger why a preliminary injunction shouldn’t be granted, with any responsive papers due on Thursday (June 25).
Bravado had sought the reduction in an ex parte software introduced underneath Federal Rule of Civil Process 65, the Lanham Act, and the All Writs Act.
The appliance was supported by a declaration from Bravado’s Ashley Fogerty and a certificates from its counsel.
A supporting memorandum argued that “every sale of Infringing Merchandise by Defendants is an irrecoverably misplaced sale for Plaintiff.”
In its grievance, Bravado additionally seeks the destruction of all infringing merchandise and damages “in an quantity to be decided.”
The lawsuit is the most recent in a rising wave of anti-counterfeiting litigation throughout the music business.
In April, HYBE filed a comparable grievance towards unnamed bootleggers forward of BTS‘s US tour dates, whereas Reside Nation subsidiary Merch Site visitors filed a trademark infringement swimsuit on behalf of Bruce Springsteen & The E Road Band across the similar time.
Sony‘s merch enterprise Ceremony of Roses has additionally lately obtained court docket orders focusing on bootleggers at Benson Boone and Dua Lipa live shows.
The surge in authorized motion displays the rising monetary significance of merchandise to the music enterprise.
UMG‘s Bravado, the merch operation on the world’s largest music firm, for instance, generated $912 million in income in 2025 and is bound to have a billion {dollars} in annual turnover in its sights for 2026.
As MBW has beforehand reported, the increase in dwell music has made ancillary revenue at live shows, significantly from attire and client items, an more and more important earnings stream for artists and their companions.
A$AP Rocky‘s Don’t Be Dumb World Tour kicked off on Wednesday Might 27 on the United Middle in Chicago.
The 42-date area tour, promoted by Reside Nation, spans North America and Europe and helps the rapper’s fourth studio album, Don’t Be Dumb, which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 in January with 123,000 equal album items in its first week.
Bravado is represented within the case by Cara R. Burns of Mims, Kaplan, Burns & Garretson.Music Enterprise Worldwide
