Tom Waits sues advertising agency

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6305403.stm
http://www.gigwise.com/news/27194/Tom-Waits-Settles-%5CSound-Alike%5C-Lawsuit

This story is from 2007, which makes it severely outdated in this field, but it is the most recent Tom Waits lawsuit to surface. Throughout his 30+ year career, Waits has retained a very unique style; a low, gravely voice chanting over eccentric music mixes, and in these years many advertising agencies have tried to use his signature music in commercials. Waits has never accepted a commercial deal, and has stated that he will never let his music be used for commercial purposes. So many advertising companies have tried to imitate his style by creating off-brand versions of his songs and using those instead. Time and again, Waits has brought these advertising agencies to court for using his likeness in their commercials without his permission.

Time and again, the courts have been ruling in his favor. This particular case was against the German car company Adam Opel AG and advertising agency McCann Erickson, and the original lawsuit was for $300,000. The defendents' claim was that the song used was not meant to imitate Waits, claiming that it is based on a Brahms composition. Tom Waits claimed that this advertising company had contacted him multiple times about using his music in their commercial, and that he had turned them down all times. The case was settled out of court in the end, and history has proven that the court tends to side with Waits in cases where an advertising agency hires an imitator to copy his style.

In the end, this proves that the law considers not only an artists work to be his intellectual property, but also all obvious likenesses of his work, especially when there is evidence that the imitation is used in place of his work, when permission is denied.