Kanye West’s Lawyers are seeking to withdraw from the case after the rapper stopped responding to them. As a result, Ye’s lawsuit against a burger joint in Melbourne is likely to fail.
Kanye West or now Ye accused Mark Elkhouri, owner of the Ivanhoe burger store, and his restaurant College Dropout Burgers of using the name of his 2004 album “College Dropout” without Ye’s permission at the beginning of 2022.
Craig Smith, Elkhouri’s attorney, told Federal Court Justice Shaun McElwaine on Friday that College Dropout’s team had not received a response from Ye in an application to secure legal costs prior to the start of the case. This is a typical legal practice when a party outside of the jurisdiction files a lawsuit.
Smith also said that Ye hadn’t done enough to keep the legal case moving forward.
He stated, “The applicant has taken one substantive step in this proceeding, which is to initiate it… and then nothing since then.”
“None of the various requests… none of those have received any substantive responses.”
Elkhouri, who appeared in court on Friday, declined to discuss the matter.
Ye has spoken out against Jews and praised Adolf Hitler ever since the lawsuit was filed. Ye’s statements led Education Minister Jason Clare to suggest that he would not be permitted entry into Australia.
Ye’s legal team took issue with the use of the business name College Dropout Burgers in a 43-page statement of claim they filed in October of last year, noting that their client’s 2004 debut album had the title The College Dropout.
Despite numerous legal letters sent to the owner, court documents claim that a burger called College Dropout remains on the menu.
According to the documents, “Ye have suffered, and will continue to suffer, loss and damage.” One of the greatest artists of all time, Ye has sold more than 140 million records worldwide.
They claim that a motif known as a Dropout Bear, which also appears in the rapper’s music video for Good Morning, was featured on a number of album covers released between 2004 and 2007. These covers include The College Dropout and Late Registration.
Ye’s legal team says that because of this and the fact that he has been called “one of the greatest 100 artists of all time,” the Australian public expects that any business or product that mentions Ye is associated with the US rapper.
The attorneys are asking for a permanent injunction to stop the Melbourne-based company from claiming that Ye sponsors, approves, or is affiliated with its fast food products and/or restaurant.
They are also requesting that Elkhouri cancel his application for an Australian trademark for College Dropout Burgers, destroy all materials that make mention of Ye or his brand, and pay their legal fees.
After receiving a cease-and-desist notice from Ye’s lawyers shortly after he began following them on Instagram, Elkhouri claimed in June that he was forced to paint over a mural of the US rapper and erase a crowned teddy bear logo inspired by the College Dropout album art.
In 2021, Ye legally changed his name from Kanye Omari West to Ye. Ye has won more than 20 Grammy Awards.
