'Naked Cowboy' takes on M&M's as lawsuit goes on

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — The "Naked Cowboy," a fixture of Times Square who plays guitar in his underwear, chewed out M&M's on Wednesday after a judge allowed his trademark infringement lawsuit against the candy maker to proceed.

Robert Burck, 37, a guitar-playing cowboy dressed only in a pair of underpants, white boots and a Stetson hat, has sued Mars Inc. for millions of dollars for dressing an animated blue M&M with a remarkably similar outfit.

District Court Judge Denny Chin rejected Burck's privacy claim, saying the law protected the name portrait or picture of a "living person," not a character created or a role played by a living person.

But Chin allowed the false endorsement claim to proceed, ruling that "he plausibly alleges that consumers seeing defendants'...