Out-of-court settlements are usually the fate of frivolous lawsuits.
Today, the lawyers for two tempests in a teapot settled their dispute about as amicably as warriors in the longstanding baseball feud involving the Red Sox and Yankees could.
Yes, Jay-Z of rap music and friendly fan of publicity had sued Big Papi of the friendly Red Sox Nation for copyright infringement.
Skeptics hinted that Jay-Z, a lifelong New York Yankees fan and among the most solvent of pinstripe patrons, had chosen a battle with Ortiz deliberately.
Ortiz, recently accepted as a naturalized American citizen, keeps his roots in the Dominican Republic fueled with business dealings. He had opened a restaurant in his native land and chose to call it the Forty-Forty Club. Alas, the name 40/40 had already been legally adopted by the paternal Jay-Z for his own American enterprise purposes.
Jay-Z may have been upset by the scandal when a construction worker on the new Yankee Stadium had cursed the home team by burying a jersey with Ortiz’s number in concrete back in 2008. A bigger dig ensued than at the Boston tunnel scandal. Conducting an excavation ceremony at the new Yankee home, Ortiz’s Red Sox shirt caused delays and uproar as the jackhammers released the evil spirit.
Did this lead to the dispute between Ortiz and Jay-Z in April of 2010?
Big Papi Ortiz, an occasional patron of the Jay-Z nightclub in New York City, had been inspired to flatter the singer by imitating Jay-Z’s business acumen.
Alas, Yankee fans are never flattered when it comes to money. Jay-Z took Ortiz to court immediately when he tried to open his restaurant, namely based on a 40 home runs and 40 doubles he achieved in 2004 as his ideal.
Who owned the right to the name? Which event came first? Was it the chicken or the egg? The Federal court judge suggested both parties ought to stop wasting the time of the busy judicial system and have their high-paid mouthpieces come up with a solution.
They did so, announcing on March 28th that something akin to principles had allowed both sides to agree to sign off on the latest skirmish in the Yankee-Red Sox feud.
We expect Big Papi may not bring his dance shoes to the emporium of Jay-Z any time soon, and Jay-Z will likely not travel to the DR to eat up a storm off the menu at the Ortiz eatery.
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