The legal fight between the Beastie Boys and GoldieBlox, a company that makes toys designed to get girls interested in engineering, has finally come to an end.
According to a filing today, which was spotted by copyright and trademark law specialist Naomi Jane Gray, the two parties have decided to dismiss the lawsuits they had filed against one another following successful settlement negotiations. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The legal fracas started after GoldieBlox, which was started by former Seattleite Debbie Sterling, used a parody of the Boys’ song “Girls” as the soundtrack for one of the company’s advertisements. While GoldieBlox argued that they didn’t need to ask for permission from the band (or pay them) the band took issue with the company’s actions, pointing to their longstanding tradition of barring any company from using their music in advertising.
GoldieBlox filed suit asking for a judgment saying they were in the right, and then the Beastie Boys countersued, claiming that GoldieBlox infringed on their copyright and trademark. Now, it looks like the two sides can walk away from the negotiating table, nursing their attorneys’ fees.
The news comes at a successful time for GoldieBlox, which recently won Intuit’s “Small Business, Big Game” competition, and landed a short ad spot during the third quarter of the Super Bowl. While the company kept with its theme of parodying modern music to fit a different message, it seems like they won’t be using the Beastie Boys’ source material any time soon.
