Drummer Bobby Blotzer‘s various court proceedings against his former Ratt bandmates took another turn for the worse. Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy was recently successful as the defendant bringing a motion for summary judgment to defeat the claims brought by Blotzer‘s WBS, Inc. regarding trademark infringement and dilution, unfair competition, false designation of origin, and intentional and negligent interference of economic relations.
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The decision from District Judge Dean G. Pregerson of the United States District Court, C.D. California dated March 6, 2018 provides a helpful background of the Ratt partnership and what took place leading to Pearcy‘s successful motion for summary judgment. The following is an excerpt from the decision from District Judge Pregerson‘s decision without the various citations:
“In 1987 [likely meant to write 1977], Defendant Stephen Pearcy (“Pearcy“) formed the band now commonly known as “RATT.” Pearcy initially named the band “MICKEY RATT,” and started out by playing in local bars and clubs in southern California and Nevada. On January 1, 1980, the band relocated to Los Angeles. At that time, the band consisted of Pearcy, Chris Hager, John Turner, and Tim Garcia. All the band members, with the exception of Tim Garcia, relocated to Los Angeles. According to Turner, upon relocating to Los Angeles, Pearcy decided the band would drop the word “Mickey” from its name and would be renamed “RATT.” As part of the rebranding process, Pearcy designed a new logo for the band to be featured on singles. Pearcy personally paid for “several hundred pressings of each such recording.” By 1981, Pearcy had designed, adopted, and commercially used the RATT logo.
During 1981 and 1982, several members joined and departed the band. By 1983, none of the musicians performing with RATT prior to 1982 remained in the band, with the exception of Pearcy himself. By 1983, RATT was comprised of Pearcy, Robbinson Lantz Crosby (“Crosby“), Warren DeMartini (“DeMartini“), Juan Carlos Croucier (“Croucier“), and Robbert Blotzer (“Blotzer“). In early 1984, RATT become nationally known when they released the album “Out of the Cellar.” The album was certified as triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and reached number seven on the Billboard 200. The RATT logo was featured on the front cover of the multi-platinum release.
On June 11, 1985, all five members of the band established the RATT General Partnership (“the Partnership“) and memorialized the terms of the partnership in a Partnership Agreement (“the Partnership Agreement“.) Around 1991 or 1992, Crosby was expelled from the Partnership, leaving Pearcy, Croucier, Demartini, and Blotzer as remaining partners.
Under Section 7.1 of the Partnership Agreement, no partner had the right to “sell, transfer, assign, mortgage, hypothecate, encumber or otherwise dispose of all or part of his interest in the Partnership without prior unanimous written consent of all of the Partners.” The Partnership Agreement provided that, in the event the partnership dissolved, “each of the Partners shall be entitled to receive his Proportionate Share of the revenues received on account of the Partnership from all other sources.” Section 11.1 of the Partnership Agreement further provided that “[i]n the event of death, permanent disability, [v]oluntary or [i]nvoluntary [w]ithdrawal of a Partner . . ., the Partnership shall not dissolve or terminate but shall continue without interruption and without any break in continuity.”
Via sleazeroxx.com