John Summit is being sued by a small promoter for his label and event brand, Off The Grid Records, according to a series of tweets.
A tweet thread created today, July 18, sent John Summit supporters into lawyer mode as Summit claims he is being threatened with a seven-figure lawsuit over his label name “Off The Grid.”
Summit also posted the Instagram of the small company that is suing him which has since limited comments on their posts and gone private due to quick backlash from Summit fans.
Many Twitter users including artist KLIPTIC were quick to note that there are several active trademarks of “Off The Grid” in the entertainment space, although this specific trademark relates to music and music-related events.
John Summit’s Off The Grid trademark was filed in April of 2022 under his real name John Schuster and covers live music events, audio recordings, music entertainment, and more.
Summit claims that the other brand, a True Dance Music event called Off The Grid Campout, did not have the trademark when he started his label and began using the name.
Through our search of trademark databases, we could not find Off The Grid Campout’s application for their trademark although their Eventbrite page does have a festival called Off The Grid Campout that took place in 2021, so they may have held some trademark since 2021.
Summit and his team acknowledge this with another tweet saying, “We applied for a trademark at the same time but since they had an event before my first event (which I clearly never heard about or found out about even after an extensive Google search) I guess they have priority….Is this truly worth going to court for and paying loads of cash…”
Therefore, Off The Grid Records could have to go through a major rebrand. Check out the Twitter thread below:
getting sued for trademark over my ‘off the grid’ label name by a small promoter even tho it’s a common phrase and i built up this brand 100% myself.. fucking sucks when ppl want to screw u over but it’s looking like i’m gonna need to rebrand guys :/
— John Summit (@johnsummit) July 18, 2023
Update 3:40PM
Mikey Made Cromie of True Entertainment has commented on the situation claiming there was no lawsuit for seven figures.
He said they, “Attempted to contact his team for more than a year. They refused to reply so our attorneys sent a cease and desist. Which just means stop using the name.”
True Entertainment was in contact with Summit’s management which asked if the two brands could co-exist. Cromie refused and Summit’s team offered to buy and Cromie said he would only agree for life-changing money.
Summit’s team said they weren’t able to offer that amount at that time and “that was that.”
Cromie restated there was no lawsuit threat or demands for any money and that his accounts have been bullied into going dark to let the situation blow over.
Read the full comment from Mikey Made Cromie here.
Featured image credit blairbbrown
