Beyonce apparel suit unravels
By Natalie Finn (E! Online)Updated: 2007-04-03 15:38
Los Angeles - A New York judge has dismissed a suit filed against Beyonce and Tina Knowles by a former business associated who claimed the mother-daughter duo had stiffed him on the commission he was owed for hooking them up with manufacturer Wear Me Apparel Corp.
The alliance between Beyonce and Wear Me Apparel eventually resulted in a $15 million licensing deal and the creation of her clothing line House of Dereon.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Herman Kahn determined that there was no evidence of a written contract between the plaintiff, Icon Entertainment CEO Greg Walker, and the Knowles women and, therefore, there was no reason that Walker was owed $1.5 million, or 10 percent of the licensing dough.
According to Walker's lawsuit, filed last July, Beyoncé paid him $25,000 for his help in setting up a string of marketing and endorsement deals, including the Wear Me Apparel contract, for her, a sum that didn't come close to the terms they had previously arrived at.
"Beyonce and Tina Knowles agreed on the terms of our business relationship, but have failed to properly compensate me for reasons unknown to me," Walker said last year. "I just want to receive my fair share and move on with my business."
Walker also sued Wear Me Apparel, claiming the company also owed him far more than the $85,000 commission he had received.
Either way, Beyonce has been lucky of late when it comes to the letter of the law. In October, a judge dismissed a federal copyright-infringement lawsuit filed against her by a disgruntled Minneapolis songwriter who said that the Grammy winner had stolen the lyrics and hooks of her 2003 hit "Baby Boy" from a tune he had penned month's prior to the single's release.
The songs in question were "substantially dissimilar," according to the judge's ruling.
Meanwhile, everything else looks to be on the up and up for Beyoncé, who was named Favorite Female Artist Saturday night at the 20th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and whose breakup empowerment anthem "Irreplaceable" was named Favorite Song.
While teaming up with Shakira for the new single "Beautiful Liar," available on a new deluxe edition of the multiplatinum B'Day due out Tuesday, Beyonce took a page from the Latin crossover star and recorded six of her latest songs in Spanish, including "Irreplaceable" and "Deja Vu."
"A lot of my fans are Hispanic," Beyonce told People en Espanol recently, "and they've always told me, 'You should sing something in Spanish,' but I don't speak Spanish at all. I took it in school [so] I thought, let me give this a try."
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