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Legal
US radio presenter sues over Jersey Shore DJ name
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 5 July 2011
An American DJ who performs under the name DJ Paulie has sued MTV owners Viacom over their staged ‘reality’ show ‘Jersey Shore’, because one of the idiots featured on the programme was a DJ called Paul who was dubbed DJ Pauly. DJ Paulie reckons that being associated with DJ Pauly is having a negative impact on his reputation, and he’s suing for trademark infringement.
Paul Lis, aka DJ Paulie, has been using his moniker on radio in Connecticut since 1971, his legal papers claim, and he has also performed and operated a record label under that name. He adds that, as DJ Paulie, he also wrote and produced a fundraising song on behalf of the US Postal Service to raise money for the families of 9/11 victims, presumably to show he’s used the name and trademarks associated with it on an a national level.
His legal papers reportedly claim that ‘Jersey Shore’ shows a “debauched lifestyle suggestive of loose morals, violence, intoxication and liberal profanity”, things he’s very keen to not be associated with, it seems. In fact that lifestyle is the very opposite of the reputation he’s “spent decades cultivating”. He goes on to claim that since the other DJ Pauly appeared on the scene, ad sales on his website and online radio show have declined.
But what about the all important difference in spelling? Well, Lis might argue that’s irrelevant, but in case a judge thinks otherwise, he also claims that MTV used the spelling ‘DJ Paulie’ in meta-data attached to content associated with the ‘Jersey Shore’ character on the broadcaster’s website.
Viacom are yet to respond to the lawsuit.
