Nipsey Hussle Estate Settles With the Crips in Trademark Lawsuit
Written by SOURCE on March 26, 2021
The Nipsey Hussle estate has reportedly dropped its lawsuit against the Crips.
According to TMZ, Nipsey’s brother, Samiel Asghedom, notified the court that the estate had reached a settlement with Crips LLC. The document, which was filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Court, does not include details about the agreement, as both parties “are still hammering out some of the terms.” The estate reportedly plans to submit the the detailed agreement in the near future.
The dispute goes all the way back to summer 2019, just months after Nipsey was fatally shot outside his clothing store in South LA. The Crips and Asghedom, aka Blacc Sam, had each filed trademark applications for one of Nipsey’s most famous slogans, “The Marathon Continues.” The street gang initially announced they would not move forward with the applications at the request of Nipsey’s family.
“There will absolutely be no trademark legal battle between their organization and Blacc Sam, brother of the late Nipsey Hussle,” the organization told The Blast. “[The Crips] respectively vows to support the wishes of Lauren London and the Asghedom family… We realize that our actions may have been offensive and we have reached out to his family, respectively Nip’s sister, Samantha Smith.”
The Crips would go on to change their tune in the following year, arguing it was entitled to the “Marathon” trademark that has become synonymous with the Nipsey brand: “The Crips organization has long used the phrase ‘The Marathon Continues’ as our ideology slogan in the past,” the gang wrote in a statement. “[Nipsey] became a well-known Crip and the phrase became popularized.”
Once the Crips made it clear they had no intention of backing down in the trademark fight, Nipsey’s estate filed a lawsuit against the organization. The lawsuit sought monetary damages and a judgment directing the Crips to destroy any merchandise they produced with the “Marathon” trademarks.
